I’ve been developing on the MultiversX platform and managed to set up a new NFT collection plus mint my first token using their official guides. Everything works fine but I’m stuck on one specific requirement.
The Problem
I need to enforce a hard cap on how many NFTs can be minted within a particular collection. From what I’ve read in the docs, the only mentioned approach is:
The ESDT manager can stop the creation of an NFT for the given ESDT forever by removing the only ESDTRoleNFTCreate role available.
This suggests I could mint exactly the number I want (let’s say 50 tokens for my collection) and then revoke the minting permissions. But this approach forces me to create every single NFT upfront, which doesn’t fit my use case.
Questions
Is there a built-in parameter during collection registration that allows setting a maximum supply limit?
Also wondering about token types on MultiversX - can someone explain the key differences between EGLD, ESDT, SFT, and NFT? Specifically curious about Semi-Fungible Tokens and how the transition from fungible to non-fungible state works. Can an SFT revert back to fungible after becoming non-fungible?
hey isaac31! interesting challenge you’ve got there. i haven’t worked extensively with nft collections on multiversx but your situation sounds familiar to what i’ve seen discussed in other blockchain contexts.
regarding your first question about built-in supply caps - from my understanding, multiversx doesn’t have a native “max supply” parameter you can set during collection creation like some other chains do. you’re probably gonna have to implement this logic in your smart contract if you want dynamic minting with a hard cap. have you considered writing a simple contract that tracks minted count and refuses to mint once you hit your limit?
for your second question about token types - this is actually pretty fascinating! egld is the native token, esdt are fungible tokens (like erc-20), nfts are unique tokens, and sfts are the interesting middle ground. from what i understand, sfts start as fungible (multiple identical copies) but can become unique when their quantity drops to 1 or when specific attributes are added.
what’s really intriguing is your question about sfts reverting back to fungible state - i’m not entirely sure about this mechanism. can they actually revert once they’ve transitioned to non-fungible? that would be pretty unique behavior compared to other chains.
what kind of use case are you building that requires dynamic minting with a hard cap? are you thinking about something like a gaming collection where items get minted based on player actions?
The smart contract approach mentioned above is definitely the most practical solution for dynamic minting with supply caps. I implemented something similar for a client project last year where we needed gradual NFT releases rather than bulk minting. The contract logic is straightforward - maintain a counter variable and check against your maximum before each mint transaction. Regarding token types, there’s one detail worth clarifying about SFTs. The transition to non-fungible happens automatically when quantity reaches 1, but you can also force this transition by burning tokens or transferring them in specific ways. However, Ray84 is correct that once an SFT becomes non-fungible, there’s no mechanism to revert it back to fungible state. The blockchain treats it as a permanent state change. One thing to consider with the smart contract approach is gas optimization. If you’re planning frequent minting operations, make sure to implement efficient storage patterns for your counter to avoid unnecessary costs. Also worth testing the contract thoroughly on devnet first since revoking permissions later becomes more complex when using custom minting logic.
theres actually a workaround for this using smart contracts! you dont need to mint everything upfront - just deploy a contract that keeps track of total minted tokens and reverts when you hit your max supply. works pretty well for most collections. regarding sfts, once they become non-fungible (quantity = 1) they cant revert back to fungible state afaik