Mint

The process of creating and issuing new digital assets or tokens on a blockchain, bringing them into circulation.

What is Mint?

Minting is the decentralized process of generating new digital assets or tokens on a blockchain, making them available for use in transactions, trading, or other activities within the network. Unlike traditional currencies issued by central banks, minting in blockchain systems is governed by smart contracts or predefined protocol rules, eliminating the need for a central authority. In Ethereum, minting is commonly associated with creating tokens, such as ERC-20 (fungible) or ERC-721 (non-fungible tokens like NFTs), and can also refer to the initial issuance of native assets like ETH during the network’s genesis or through specific mechanisms.

In practice, minting occurs when a smart contract executes a function to create new tokens, often defined by the contract’s code. For example, in ERC-20 tokens like USDC, a designated minter (e.g., Circle) can issue new tokens to an address, increasing the total supply, as seen when USDC minted 50 million tokens in a single transaction on Ethereum in 2023. For NFTs, minting happens when a unique token is created, such as when an artist mints a new digital artwork on a platform like OpenSea, assigning it a unique token ID. In Ethereum’s proof-of-stake, validators indirectly “mint” new ETH as block rewards, with approximately 1,600 ETH minted daily as of 2025, based on staking rewards.

Minting ensures tokens are created transparently and immutably, recorded on the blockchain. However, it requires careful governance to prevent issues like inflation (in fungible tokens) or unauthorized minting. For instance, a 2022 exploit in a poorly coded NFT contract allowed unauthorized minting of 200 tokens, highlighting the need for secure smart contract design. Minting is fundamental to launching new digital assets, enabling DeFi, NFTs, and other blockchain applications.