Metaplex (MPLX): Empowering NFT Creators on the Solana Blockchain

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) first shot to popularity in 2021 on the back of multimillion dollar mega-sales that year. Despite losing some of its initial gloss, the NFT market is still one of the key elements in the broader crypto ecosystem. Right from the beginning of the NFT mania, it was evident that the world’s leading smart contract blockchain — Ethereum (ETH) — was poorly suited to the tasks of creation, trade and management of NFTs, primarily because of its high gas fees and network congestion.

The Solana (SOL) blockchain, with its swift transaction processing and minuscule fees, has positioned itself from the beginning as an NFT-friendly platform. It’s no wonder then that a pivotal project that aims to provide comprehensive support for NFT creators and developers emerged on Solana. The project in focus is Metaplex (MPLX) — a protocol that facilitates the minting, launching, trading and managing of NFTs, NFT collections, storefronts and entire marketplaces.

Key Takeaways:

• Metaplex is a Solana-based protocol that provides creators and developers with an extensive range of NFT development tools.

• Using Metaplex Creator Studio — one of the tools provided by the platform — nontechnical audiences can mint and launch their NFTs and collections via a GUI (graphical user) interface, with no programming skills required

• Metaplex also allows developers to create and launch NFTs, collections and marketplaces using programmable tools, some of which are designed to facilitate the development of advanced NFT types — composable NFTs and compressed NFTs.

What Is Metaplex?

Metaplex (MPLX) is a decentralized Solana-based protocol that offers creators and developers a comprehensive set of tools for NFT creation and management. Using Metaplex, NFT creators and programmers can access a variety of development tools and utilities for the common operations related to NFT lifecycle management — minting, launching and listing NFTs; creating NFT collections; setting up storefronts; and even introducing entire NFT marketplace platforms.

For creators, Metaplex offers NFT development and management tools that require no programming skills. For developers, in addition to common NFT operations, the platform also provides tools to handle more complex forms of non-fungible assets, such as composable NFTs and compressed NFTs, which we’ll cover further in the article.

The platform was founded in 2021 by Metaplex Studios, a San Francisco–based blockchain development outfit, and is also supported by the Metaplex Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the ongoing decentralization and development of the protocol. Solana-affiliated blockchain technologist Stephen Hess is CEO of Metaplex Studios and Director at the Metaplex Foundation. Hess previously served as the Head of Product for Solana, and was responsible for the wider adoption of the blockchain platform during its first two years on the market.

Benefits of Creating an NFT Marketplace on Solana

While Hess's prior involvement with Solana was possibly one element in Metaplex's choice of a host platform, other factors suggest Solana was the optimal environment for the project. 

First, Solana features vastly lower gas fees than Ethereum — the chain that has traditionally been the top choice for decentralized apps (DApps) and protocols. The process of minting and trading NFTs requires payment of gas to the underlying blockchain, and Ethereum, with its typical fees of a few dollars per transaction, isn't the most cost-effective option for NFT creators. In contrast, Solana features gas fees at tiny fractions of a cent, making even the most high-volume NFT operations affordable.

Secondly, Solana boasts some of the industry's highest throughput and fastest transaction confirmation times. While Ethereum transactions take several seconds to several minutes to be confirmed, Solana offers sub-second confirmation times. These technical efficiencies are a critical benefit for operators of large-scale NFT storefronts and marketplaces.

Finally, right from its beginnings, Solana has positioned itself as an ideal environment for NFT projects. The blockchain's architecture and technical properties are optimized to handle all varieties of complex and simple NFT solutions. While Ethereum initially focused heavily on decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases, Solana saw the opportunity to target the newly formed NFT segment. Its blockchain has always punched well above its weight when it comes to NFT trading activity. 

While the total number of traded NFTs has traditionally been higher on Ethereum than on Solana, the latter has nearly always featured a much higher share of NFT trade as a percentage of its overall activity. A few days ago, Solana even managed to edge ahead of its larger rival by total NFT trade volumes. As such, Solana's NFT-friendly environment is another critical advantage for launching non-fungible asset-focused projects on its blockchain, which Metaplex undoubtedly considered at the host chain evaluation stage.

Metaplex for Creators

Metaplex Creator Studio

Metaplex Creator Studio is the platform’s primary tool for empowering creators from nontechnical backgrounds. With Creator Studio you can mint, list and market NFTs and collections without any programming skills required. For years, NFT development's technical/coding side acted as a barrier to entry into the market for many creative professionals. With the arrival of Creator Studio, they can now focus on their art development instead of trying to figure out the technical nuances of NFTs. Using a GUI (graphical user interface), Creator Studio lets creatives not only mint and list their NFTs and collections but also target these assets at their follower communities via a custom drop interface.

Metaplex for Developers

The Metaplex platform offers programmers a diverse assortment of tools for handling the entire lifecycle of NFT development and management on Solana. Below, we’ll quickly touch upon some of the more interesting programs in the platform’s developer toolbox.

Token Metadata

Metaplex’s Token Metadata program enables developers to attach additional information and properties to NFTs and fungible tokens. You can create some fairly advanced NFT types through its Programmable NFT feature, which offers custom metadata specifications.

Token Metadata also has an extension set called Fusion that developers can use to create composable NFTs. Composable NFTs are trackable on-chain with customizable parts, and often interact with other NFTs or smart contracts to enable dynamic functionality. For example, the same composable NFT might have different visual properties, depending upon selections made by the end user.

Candy Machine

Candy Machine is Metaplex’s program for minting and launching fair NFT collections. Using the tool, creators can mint and load up the entire collection and then enable “unloading” — i.e., distribution or sales of the collection to end users under specified rules. Programmable NFTs can also be minted via the Candy Machine protocol.

Bubblegum

Bubblegum is a tool to create and manage compressed NFTs. NFT compression is a Solana feature that allows you to create non-fungible assets by storing only some key metadata on-chain, with most of the remaining data kept off-chain. This is a very cost- and resource-effective way of creating and managing NFTs.

Hydra

Hydra is a Metaplex-based crypto wallet that lets you store and easily manage your NFTs, as well as Solana’s SOL tokens or any SPL format tokens. The SPL format is Solana’s default standard for fungible tokens. In essence, what ERC-20 is to Ethereum, SPL is to Solana.

What Is the MPLX Token?

MPLX is Metaplex’s native crypto token. First issued in September 2022, MPLX is the platform’s decentralized governance token. MPLX token holders can participate in decision-making processes related to Metaplex’s future development and changes to the protocol via the Metaplex DAO. There are also plans to add more functionalities to MPLX to boost its use throughout Metaplex's ecosystem.

The total and maximum supply of MPLX tokens is 1 billion, with nearly 379 million tokens currently in circulation.

MPLX Token Price Prediction

As of Dec 15, 2023, Metaplex's MPLX token trades at around $0.195, or 78.2% lower than its all-time high of $0.897 on Sep 20, 2022, and over 650% higher than its all-time low of $0.025 on May 11, 2023. Long-term forecasts for MPLX are all bullish, with DigitalCoinPrice expecting the token to hit $0.67 in 2025 and $1.97 in 2030, while PricePrediction projects it will be trading at $0.438 in 2025 and $3.25 in 2030. 

Despite the bullish forecasts, if you plan to invest in MPLX or any other cryptocurrency token, it’s essential to conduct comprehensive research on its investment potential and fit for your portfolio.

Where to Buy MPLX

You can buy the MPLX token on Bybit as an MPLX/USDT Spot pair. If you don’t have an account on Bybit, you can easily register for one and trade hundreds of cryptocurrencies both in the Spot and Derivative markets.

Closing Thoughts

The Solana blockchain has always been considered an excellent environment for NFT-focused crypto projects. Metaplex has now taken the blockchain's NFT ecosystem to a new level, offering Solana NFT creators some of the most innovative tools available. Very few NFT projects, whether on Solana, Ethereum or another major chain, can match Metaplex when it comes to the variety and depth of tools offered for comprehensive NFT lifecycle management.

With Metaplex, the NFT community can now access a platform that lets them launch NFTs, collections, storefronts and entire marketplaces via user-friendly and flexible development tools. This is a project that will possibly breathe new life into the NFT market, a market that now longs for the return of the old glory days of 2021. With Solana's speed and cost efficiencies on its side, Metaplex is ready to meet the challenge from potential Ethereum-based competitors any day.

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