Highlights

- Minting with Metaplex hit an all-time high in July, with 14.9 million Solana NFTs created using the protocol, driven by the rapid adoption of Compressed NFTs and the next generation of NFT apps like DRiP, Dialect and TipLink

- MPLX governance of the Metaplex Program Library is now live, allowing community members and developers to submit proposals to contribute to the development of core features of the protocol

- Solana Monke Business Gen3 broke the record for highest grossing mint ever on Solana in July, with over $30 million in raffle ticket sales

Overview

The Metaplex Protocol continues to be the bedrock of the NFT ecosystem on Solana, with over 60 million NFTs minted and 12.4 million wallets having ever held a Metaplex NFT. In July, minting hit an all time high with 14.9 million NFTs created.

In addition, the total number of wallets that hold a Metaplex NFT increased from 11.5 million to 12.4 million in July, the third largest month-over-month increase on record.

Compressed NFTs

In co-development with Solana Labs, the Metaplex Foundation shipped compressed NFTs as the first use case of state compression earlier this year which has dramatically lowered the cost to mint and create NFTs. Users can now mints 1 million NFTs for as little as ~5 SOL or 1 billion NFTs for ~507 SOL.⁽²⁾

Since launching, creators and developers have used Metaplex to create 26 million compressed NFTs, which has on-boarded 3.5 million new wallets to the ecosystem. This innovative technology has unlocked a new wave of NFT apps that were not possible before, powered by Metaplex. 

- DRiP is changing the way that creators connect with collectors by airdropping compressed NFTs for free on a weekly basis to participating subscribers. Previously this type of mass-scale distribution would have been cost prohibitive, but is now made possible with Compression. 

- Dialect, a web3 messaging platform, is using compressed NFTs as chat stickers within its popular messaging app. Creators can drop limited edition sticker packs, giving users a new way to utilize art from their favorite creators while messaging with their friends. These sticker packs are even tradeable on marketplaces that support compressed NFTs.

- Tensor, the highest daily volume marketplace on Solana, launched its support for compressed NFTs. Not only can collectors visit Tensor to trade compressed NFTs, but they can even trade sticker packs via Tensor within the Dialect app. 

- TipLink is creating onboarding flows that enable the distribution of NFTs at scale via any medium with a link. Now users can mint NFTs without needing to download an app or manage a seed phrase.

- Underdog Protocol is enabling creators and dapps to seamlessly integrate dynamic NFTs into their products. With the Underdog API, users can mint, manage, and update compressed NFTs all in one place. 

- Crossmint is making NFT infrastructure accessible to everyone through its API suite. Mint compressed NFTs and airdrop them to a web3 wallet or web2 email address seamlessly with its API.

To facilitate this growing ecosystem, in July, the Metaplex Foundation shipped a new JavaScript library for working with compressed NFTs: https://github.com/metaplex-foundation/mpl-bubblegum/tree/main/clients/js

Royalty Enforcement

Earlier this year, the Metaplex Foundation rolled out Programmable NFTs, a new way for creators to enforce royalties on Solana NFTs through the use of programmable rule sets. Programmable NFTs have become the asset class of choice for both existing and new Digital Art and Profile Photo (PFP) collections. 

Through the end of July, 1.4 million NFTs have migrated to Programmable NFTs including collections such as Solana Monke Business, Claynosaurz, Okay Bears, Lily, Catalina Whales, and many more. Furthermore an additional 900k new Programmable NFTs have been minted, with the vast majority of new projects choosing to use the new asset class.

The overall result has been ~331,000 SOL (~$7 million USD) in royalties paid to creators through Programmable NFTs, cementing Solana as one of the premier chains for creators and on-chain communities.

Solana Monke Business Gen3

In July, Solana Monke Business (SMB) completed its historic NFT mint earlier this month for its Gen3 collection. The multi-phase mint included a raffle phase in which ~80k tickets were sold for a chance to win one of the remaining 4k Gen3 barrels, resulting in more than $30 million USD of volume (largest Solana NFT mint of all-time) and making Solana the highest volume chain for NFTs that day. Those who were not lucky enough to pull a winning ticket were refunded their SOL excluding a small non-refundable raffle fee. 

The drop used several new mint mechanics such as gating the mint to holders of a specific NFT collection (ex: Gen2 holders) and burn-to-mint, which are now available for anyone to use for their own project through the no-code Metaplex Creator Studio

Governance

As of July 26th, MPLX holders can  propose, comment, and vote on Metaplex Improvement Proposals (MIPs) which may propose changes to any program in the Metaplex Program Library here, including the key programs like Token Metadata and Bubblegum that manage the creation and updating of NFTs.

Voting will be based on MPLX ownership, meaning that one MPLX equals one vote, and votes will be held via the Metaplex DAO website. For the full governance procedure, please see MIP-5: Procedure for Metaplex Improvement Proposals (“MIPs”) for the Metaplex Program Library.

We’re excited to see where this next chapter of expanded community governance will lead, and despite market conditions, remain focused on our mission of building a decentralized digital asset economy on Solana that will scale to billions of people. 

Sources:

1. On-chain data from TopLedger
2. https://solana.com/news/state-compression-compressed-nfts-solana