Metaplex Protocol Development Guide

A comprehensive guide for building NFTs, digital assets, and token launches on Solana using the Metaplex Protocol - the industry standard powering 99% of Solana NFTs and tokens.

What is Metaplex?

Metaplex is the leading tokenization protocol on Solana, providing smart contracts and tools for creating, selling, and managing digital assets. From simple NFTs to compressed collections of billions, from fair token launches to hybrid token/NFT systems, Metaplex provides the infrastructure.

Key Statistics

99% of Solana NFTs use Metaplex standards

$10B+ in transaction value facilitated

78% of Solana NFTs minted via Candy Machine (as of 2022)

Billions of compressed NFTs possible at minimal cost

Overview

Metaplex provides multiple products for different use cases:

NFT Standards

| Product | Description | Cost per Mint |
|---------|-------------|---------------|
| Core | Next-gen single-account NFT standard | ~0.0029 SOL |
| Token Metadata | Original NFT standard with PDAs | ~0.022 SOL |
| Bubblegum v2 | Compressed NFTs (cNFTs) | ~0.00009 SOL |

Launch & Distribution

| Product | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| Candy Machine | NFT collection minting with guards |
| Core Candy Machine | Candy Machine for Core assets |
| Genesis | Token Generation Event (TGE) platform |

Utilities

| Product | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| MPL-Hybrid | Swap between fungible and non-fungible |
| Inscriptions | On-chain data storage (up to 10MB) |
| DAS API | Unified API for fetching digital assets |
| Umi | JavaScript framework for Solana clients |

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Program IDs

Core Programs (Mainnet & Devnet)

| Program | Address |
|---------|---------|
| MPL Core | CoREENxT6tW1HoK8ypY1SxRMZTcVPm7R94rH4PZNhX7d |
| Token Metadata | metaqbxxUerdq28cj1RbAWkYQm3ybzjb6a8bt518x1s |
| Bubblegum | `BGUMAp9Gq7iTEuizy4pqaxsTyUCBK68MDfK752saRP