Mint Your Avatar
Information about minting avatars on the Mona Marketplace.
Last updated
Information about minting avatars on the Mona Marketplace.
Last updated
Minting allows you to sell your avatar to a collector, as well as be visible on the Mona website.
Once all the files have been submitted accurately, your avatar will then enter our QA process. If it is your first time submitting a VRM, you will need to submit your wallet address on the QA Submission form in order to be put on the Allow list for minting purposes. Make sure to check out Submitting your VRM to the Mona Marketplace if you haven't already.
As soon as your avatar passes QA, you will be notified, and the Mint button on your Avatar Draft page will be enabled. You will need either ETH or Matic in your wallet for the gas fees.
Click the Mint button to begin the process. Please note Minting does not set the price of your avatar. You will still need to list your avatar’s price once it has been approved to mint.
You will have a choice between minting on either Ethereum or Polygon
There are several things to consider when choosing between Ethereum and Polygon, but one of the main factors is the gas fees.
Over the process of minting on the Mona Marketplace and selling your avatar there will be a number of gas fees, or the fees related to the amount of electricity the transactions require.
You have the option to list your avatar, and this will include further gas fees. Some of these fees will be one time only per wallet. This will allow you to set a price for your avatar which a collector can purchase. If the avatar is unlisted, a collector can make an offer on the avatar but no price will be set.
The fees for minting include the following :
Minting gas fee
Listing gas fee (optional : if you want to set the price as above)
The first time you decide to list your avatar would require the following :
Mona Permissions gas fee (one time per asset type per wallet)
Marketplace Permissions gas fee (one time per wallet)
Asset types would include Spaces or Avatars. The first time you want to list an avatar you would pay this fee, but all following avatars would not.
Permissions fees are about 1/6th the amount of the minting fee.
The amount that each Gas fee costs depends on the Blockchain you use and can vary significantly over time. Ethereum and Polygon MATIC are currently supported and are compared below.
As much as MATIC has smaller gas fees, if you don’t have MATIC it is possible to have a bridging fee which is based on an Ethereum gas fee.
There are many web resources that display the current Gas prices for Ethereum such as UseWeb3.xyz.
When selling directly on the Mona Marketplace, Creators receive 4.5% more on Secondary Sales versus selling on a 3rd party marketplace like OpenSea.
Primary Sale : 85% Creator + 15% Mona
Secondary Sale : 85% Seller + 12% Creator + 3% Mona
Ethereum is where most NFTs (including high-end art and collectibles) are currently minted. Ethereum is more popular than Polygon, and NFTs minted on Ethereum are easier to sell and re-sell. With that popularity comes more network traffic and higher gas prices.
Ethereum has higher gas fees. This means that in order to mint your space on Ethereum, you will be prompted to pay a fee in order to do so. The amount varies greatly, from $25-30 (Feb 2022) up to $300-$500 (October 2021) per transaction. Unfortunately, this is the norm for minting on Ethereum, for any platform right now. The gas fees fluctuate wildly throughout the day, so if you're seeing high fees now, you can check back an hour later or even in another few minutes and you might see them a bit lower (or higher).
While the gas fees are high, the financial upside for an artist minting on Ethereum is significantly higher than minting on Polygon.
Polygon (previously known as Matic) is a proof-of-stake chain, which is built on top of Ethereum. While not as popular as Ethereum, Polygon has gained a lot of traction in the community. NFT artists seeking a cheaper, more environmentally friendly solution have been turning to Polygon to mint their work.
Polygon has significatly lower gas fees when compared to minting directly on Ethereum. Fees are typically less than $1.
Follow this guide to add the Matic network to your MetaMask Wallet.
While Polygon is cheaper for those who are less familiar with crypto, keep in mind that saving money upfront on minting fees may not balance out with the possible resellability of a space. So, consider all the factors when choosing which chain to mint on.
Currently, we only support minting on Ethereum and Polygon. We are working on supporting other chains, especially those that are carbon negative, such as Algorand. If you'd like to recommend a certain chain, please send us a message in our Discord.
