- 1 The cost-saving feature on Solana is the reason behind the spike in the number of NFTs minted on Solana.
- 2 Bubblegum is used for weighing down the cost of interacting with NFTs on Solana.
Solana blockchain shows 3 Million NFTs minted weekly. The reason is its cost-effective feature that is provided with the use of a tool called Bubblegum. Its main adopter is Drup Haus, a project that facilitates creators to mint and airdrop NFTs. Drip has been offering Bubblegum’s compression technology since early 2023.
The use of the Solana blockchain has increased due to its cost-saving feature. It has low fees as compared to Ethereum. A token transferred on Ethereum costs $0.63 whereas the transaction on Solana costs a fraction of a cent.
Bubblegum uses Merkle Trees to bring down the cost of cNFTs (compressed NFTs). It is a data structure that involves scanning the items in a Merkle Tree scales logarithmically. This means that minting larger numbers of NFTs results in lower costs per NFT.
Minting does not show that there is an increase in the hot market for NFTs on Solana. Solscan data shows volume in SOL terms for NFTs has been relatively flat over the last 90 days.
Metaplex developed Bubblegum which also provides the foundation for launching NFTs on Solana called Candy Machine. It upgraded its protocol in January to permit creators of NFTs to impose royalties.
Solana’s ultra-low-cost compressed NFTs are a new feature that is designed to reduce the cost of minting NFTs on the Solana blockchain. Chinese reporter Colin Wu revealed that the total number of Solana compressed NFTs has risen to nearly 78 Million.
Why cNFTs are Gaining Popularity
Somehow it impacts the sales of the NFTs. The cNFTs have gained popularity not only in terms of minting but also contributed remarkably to the monthly sales. In August, they initiated 21.5% of Solana NFTs total sales volume which shows their growing market presence.
However, many regulatory challenges are placed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the NFT market. SEC initiated its first imposition against Impact Theory which is a Web3 company that generated $30 Million by selling three tiers of NFT offerings.
Magic Eden marketplace has announced that it will support the Solanan compressed NFTs to provide a cost-effective alternative to owning digital collectibles. On social media platform X Magic Eden posted that cNFTs are a new wave of NFT creation only possible on Solana that allows the production of NFTs at a fraction of the cost of traditional NFTs minting.
Summary
The cost of minting and interacting on Solana with NFTs is reduced with the use of the tool Bubblegum. It uses compressed techniques, and that results in minting over 3M NFTs weekly.
Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.