12 Top NFT Standards in 2026: Pick the One That Fits Your Project

NFT standards are the shared rules that decide how a non-fungible token is minted, owned, sent and read by wallets and marketplaces. Pick the right one and your NFTs work everywhere from day one. Pick the wrong one and you pay more gas, lose royalties or end up with tokens that some marketplaces cannot show.

This guide walks through the 12 NFT standards that matter in 2026, what each one does, where it is used and its real status on the official Ethereum proposals site. You also get a side-by-side ERC-721 vs ERC-1155 table, the matching standards on Solana, Cardano and other chains, and a simple way to choose.

In this guide:

• The 12 NFT standards worth knowing in 2026, with use cases and official status
• Real gas numbers that show why batch minting standards exist
• ERC-721 vs ERC-1155 compared in one table
• NFT standards on Solana, Cardano, Tezos, NEAR, TON and BNB Chain
• A decision tree to pick the right standard for your project

12 Top NFT Standards in 2026

Most NFTs today still run on two core standards, ERC-721 and ERC-1155. The rest add one job to them, such as cheaper mints, royalties, rentals or wallets. We also cover the top standards on Cardano and Solana. For each one, we note its status on Ethereum Improvement Proposals, because a “Final” standard is far safer to build on than a “Draft”.

1. ERC-721: One-of-a-Kind NFTs

The ERC-721 token standard of the Ethereum blockchain laid the foundation for the entire NFT ecosystem. It was proposed in January 2018 and is now Final. Every token has its own ID, so no two tokens are the same and they cannot be swapped one for one. That makes ERC-721 tokens easy to verify, transfer and program on the blockchain.

Status: Final. Supported by every major wallet and marketplace.

Use Cases

As the primary standard for non-fungible tokens, ERC-721 has many real-world uses:

• Digital art: Creators turn one-of-a-kind artwork into a token that proves who owns it.
• Gaming assets: Rare in-game items like skins, characters and weapons become tradable tokens.
• Virtual real estate: Land parcels in Decentraland and The Sandbox are ERC-721 tokens.
• Profile picture (PFP) collections: Many 10,000-piece collections use ERC-721 or its 721A variant.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. BNB Chain: BEP-721 (the same interface on BNB Smart Chain)
2. Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain, Base, Arbitrum: ERC-721 itself, since these chains run the Ethereum Virtual Machine
3. Cardano: CIP-25 (NFT metadata standard)
4. NEAR Protocol: NEP-171
5. Tron: TRC-721

If you want to launch a collection on this standard, our guide to ERC-721 token development covers the build step by step.

2. ERC-1155: Multi Token With a Single Contract

The ERC-1155 is a multi-token standard that supports fungible, non-fungible and semi-fungible tokens in one contract. It became Final after being proposed in June 2018. Unlike ERC-721, one ERC-1155 contract can hold many token types, and each has its own supply. Take a concert ticket. Before the show, 5,000 tickets are all the same. After the show, each one can turn into a keepsake of its own.

ERC-1155 also sends many tokens in one batch transaction. Moving 10 items with ERC-721 takes 10 transfers, while ERC-1155 does it in one, which cuts gas costs.

Status: Final. Supported by most, but not all, marketplaces, so check yours first.

Use Cases

• Gaming: One contract can hold in-game coins, stackable items and rare unique weapons.
• Editions and prints: Many copies of one piece are minted in a batch to save gas.
• Tickets and passes: Many identical passes can be issued at once and redeemed later.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. BNB Chain: BEP-1155
2. Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain and other EVM chains: ERC-1155 itself
3. Cardano: CIP-68 (supports fungible, NFT and rich-fungible tokens)
4. NEAR Protocol: NEP-245 (multi token)
5. Tezos: FA2 (TZIP-12)

We explain how to build these tokens in our ERC-1155 token development guide.

3. ERC-721A: Cheaper Batch Minting for Collections

ERC-721A is not a new interface. It is a gas-saving way to write an ERC-721 contract, so every wallet and marketplace still sees a normal ERC-721 token. The Azuki team built it for its sale on 12 January 2022 and released it as open source in the ERC721A repository.

The trick is simple. A normal contract writes one storage record per token minted. ERC-721A writes one record per batch and fills in the gaps when someone looks up a token. As a result, minting five NFTs costs almost the same as minting one.

Status: Free, open code for ERC-721 (not a separate EIP).

Use Cases

• PFP drops: Large public mints where buyers take several NFTs at once.
• Allowlist sales: Lower fees for buyers during busy mint windows.

4. ERC-2309: Batch Minting by Range

ERC-2309 is an extension of ERC-721 that allows batch minting of NFTs in a single event. With plain ERC-721, every token needs its own Transfer event, which costs gas. ERC-2309 adds one “ConsecutiveTransfer” event that records a whole range of token IDs at once, such as tokens 1 to 10,000. It is Final, and OpenZeppelin ships it as the ERC721Consecutive contract.

The catch is that this bulk event only applies at contract creation. After that, tokens move one by one as normal ERC-721 tokens.

Status: Final.

Use Cases

• Event tickets: Platforms issue thousands of tickets with unique IDs in one go.
• Large generative collections: The full supply is minted to the creator at launch, then sold or airdropped.

5. ERC-2981: Royalty Info for Every Sale

The ERC-2981 NFT standard gives every NFT a shared way to report royalties. Any marketplace can ask the contract, “for this sale price, how much royalty goes to whom?” and get the same answer. This shared royalty rule helps artists, bands and studios get paid when their work sells again, on any site. It is Final.

However, there is one point many guides miss. ERC-2981 only reports the royalty; the standard itself says payment “must be voluntary”. Each marketplace decides whether to pay it. If you need royalties enforced, look at ERC-721C (number 6) or Metaplex Core (number 12).

Status: Final. Read by most large marketplaces, paid at their discretion.

Use Cases

• Music NFTs: Musicians and labels get a share of secondary sales.
• Film and video: Studios and creators earn on each resale.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. BNB Chain, Polygon and other EVM chains: ERC-2981 itself
2. Cardano: CIP-27 (community royalties standard)
3. NEAR Protocol: NEP-199 (royalties and payouts)
4. Solana: Set in Metaplex data, and Metaplex Core can force payment

6. ERC-721C: Royalties Creators Can Enforce

ERC-721C is Limit Break’s “Creator Token Standard”. It extends ERC-721 with transfer rules, so a creator can block trading on marketplaces that skip royalties. OpenSea added ERC-721C compatibility in April 2024, and sales with enforced earnings run through Limit Break’s Payment Processor.

There is a trade-off, though. Blocking some venues can reduce liquidity, and some platforms warn that strict transfer rules can clash with smart contract wallets. So test your target wallets and marketplaces before launch.

Status: Industry standard by Limit Break, not an official ERC.

Use Cases

• Game assets: Studios that rely on secondary-sale income.
• Art drops: Artists who want a cut of every sale.

7. ERC-4907: Rental NFTs

The ERC-4907 NFT standard is an extension of ERC-721 that supports rental or time-based use. It splits the owner from the “user” and adds an expiry time. The owner keeps the NFT, while the renter can use it until the time runs out, with no need to hand over ownership. It was proposed in March 2022 by the team behind the Double Protocol rental market and is now Final.

Status: Final.

Use Cases

• Media: Short-term access to music, films and online shows.
• Subscription NFTs: Membership and service passes that lapse on a set date.
• Game items: Players rent strong items for a season instead of buying them.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. BNB Chain, Polygon and other EVM chains: ERC-4907 itself
2. Cardano: Rental logic is usually written into Plutus scripts around CIP-68 tokens

8. ERC-6551: Token Bound Accounts

The ERC-6551 standard introduces token bound accounts (TBA). In short, every NFT can own its own smart contract wallet. That wallet can hold other tokens and NFTs and use dApps, and whoever owns the NFT controls the wallet. So a static NFT becomes an on-chain account. It works with existing ERC-721 NFTs without changing them.

Status: Review. Widely used, but the spec can still change, so pin your contract version.

Use Cases

• Game characters: A character NFT carries its own gear, skins and history when it is sold.
• Avatars in virtual worlds: An avatar holds its own clothes, land or gear.
• DeFi-enabled NFTs: The NFT’s wallet can hold staked or lent assets.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. BNB Chain, Polygon, Base and other EVM chains: ERC-6551 itself (one shared registry address across chains)

Read our full guide to ERC-6551 token development for build details.

9. ERC-5192: Soulbound (Non-Transferable) NFTs

ERC-5192 is a minimal standard for soulbound tokens: NFTs that cannot be sent once issued. It adds a “locked” flag to ERC-721, so wallets and marketplaces know not to offer a transfer. It is Final.

Status: Final.

Use Cases

• Certificates and diplomas: Proof of a course or degree that stays with the holder.
• Membership and KYC badges: Access passes that cannot be sold on.
• Event attendance: Proof that someone was at an event.

See our soulbound token development guide for more on this model.

10. ERC-4906: Metadata Update Events for Dynamic NFTs

Dynamic NFTs change over time: a game character levels up, or an artwork changes with the weather. The problem is that marketplaces cache metadata, so the new look may not show. ERC-4906 fixes this with a “MetadataUpdate” event. When a token changes, the contract emits the event and marketplaces refresh it. It is Final.

Status: Final.

Use Cases

• Game assets: Traits that grow as players progress.
• Evolving art: Pieces that change by time, data feeds or owner actions.

Similar Token Standards on Other Blockchains

1. Cardano: CIP-68, where the data sits in a datum you can update
2. Solana: The holder of the update key can change Metaplex data

11. CIP-68: Programmable NFTs on Cardano

CIP-68 is an NFT standard of the Cardano blockchain. It is marked Active on the Cardano CIP site. Older Cardano NFTs used CIP-25, which stores metadata in the minting transaction, so it is hard to change and smart contracts cannot read it. CIP-68 instead stores metadata in a datum on a “reference NFT” that is paired with the “user token” in your wallet.

As a result, the metadata can change without changing the token’s identity, and Plutus smart contracts can read it on-chain.

Status: Active on Cardano.

Use Cases

• Gaming assets: Items gain traits as players progress.
• Digital art upgrades: Created NFTs can be upgraded with new visuals and metadata.
• Rich tokens: Coins that carry full on-chain data.

12. Metaplex Core: The New Solana NFT Standard

Solana does not use ERC standards. Most Solana NFTs were built with Metaplex Token Metadata, which needs three or more accounts per NFT. Metaplex Core is the newer standard. According to the Metaplex Core docs, it uses one account per asset, costs about 0.003 SOL to mint against roughly 0.022 SOL for Token Metadata, and has a royalties plugin that enforces creator royalties by default.

Status: Live on Solana mainnet; Metaplex calls it its next-generation standard.

Use Cases

• Low-cost collections: Large drops where mint cost per item matters.
• Royalty-first projects: Creators who want royalties enforced on-chain.
• Game items with plugins: Freeze, burn and attribute plugins built in.

Older NFT Standards You Will Still See

Many guides, including older versions of this one, still list a few standards that never became final. You should know them, but think twice before building on them in 2026.

• ERC-998 (composable NFTs): Lets one NFT own other NFTs and tokens, like a container. It is still a Draft after years with little change. ERC-6551 now covers most of the same ideas with wider support.
• ERC-875 (bulk NFT transfers): An early batch-transfer and atomic swap standard. It is now Withdrawn, and ERC-1155 does the same job.
• ERC-994 (delegated NFTs): A 2018 idea for delegating rights over land and property NFTs. It never became a formal EIP. For rights and access, teams now use ERC-4907 rentals or ERC-6551 accounts. For real estate, see our guide to RWA tokenization platform development.

What NFT Standards Do and Why They Matter

NFT standards act as the blueprint for how NFTs work, interact and move across blockchain networks. On Ethereum, each one starts as a Request for Comment (ERC), a type of Improvement Proposal (EIP). The community reviews it, and it moves from Draft to Review, Last Call and finally Final. Only a Final standard is locked, so wallets and marketplaces can rely on it.

The NFT smart contract then puts the standard into code. NFT smart contract development covers minting, burning, transfers and royalty rules. A shared standard brings three clear benefits:

• Interoperability: Any wallet or marketplace that supports the standard can show and trade your NFT.
• Safety: Well-tested, audited code (like OpenZeppelin’s) cuts bugs.
• Lower cost to build: Teams reuse proven code instead of writing transfers from scratch.

Most extensions in the list above are add-ons to the same ERC-721 base. A single NFT contract can combine several of them, as the diagram below shows.

ERC-721 vs ERC-1155: Which Core Standard to Use

Most projects start by choosing between these two. Here is how they compare:

Feature	ERC-721	ERC-1155
Token types	Non-fungible only	Fungible, non-fungible and semi-fungible
Contract scope	One collection per contract	Many token types in one contract
Batch transfers	No (one transfer per token)	Yes (many tokens in one transaction)
Supply per ID	Always 1	Any number
Marketplace support	Universal	Most, not all
Best for	1/1 art, PFPs, land, identity	Games, editions, tickets, mixed assets
Official status	Final (2018)	Final (2018)

In short, choose ERC-721 when each item is truly one of a kind. Choose ERC-1155 when you need many copies or many types of items, especially in games. If you need something in between, our guide to semi-fungible token development explains how ERC-1155 handles that.

NFT Standards on Other Blockchains

ERC numbers belong to Ethereum, but EVM chains such as Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain, Base and Arbitrum use the same ERC-721 and ERC-1155 code. Other chains have their own rules:

Blockchain	Main NFT standard(s)	What to know
BNB Chain	BEP-721, BEP-1155	Same interfaces as ERC-721 and ERC-1155
Solana	Metaplex Token Metadata, Metaplex Core	Core is cheaper and can enforce royalties
Cardano	CIP-25, CIP-68	CIP-68 allows updatable, on-chain readable metadata
Tezos	FA2 (TZIP-12)	One standard for fungible and non-fungible tokens
NEAR Protocol	NEP-171, NEP-245	NEP-171 for NFTs, NEP-245 for multi tokens
TON	TEP-62	Each NFT item is its own small contract
Tron	TRC-721	Tron’s version of ERC-721

The chain you pick shapes fees, speed and which marketplaces list you. For a deeper comparison, see our list of the top blockchains to launch an NFT marketplace.

Essential Factors to Consider Before Choosing an NFT Standard

As NFTs are used for many purposes, startups often struggle to pick the right standard. Here are the factors that matter most, followed by a simple decision tree.

Scalability Needs

If the project needs high trading volume or mass minting, choose a chain and standard built to scale. ERC-1155, ERC-721A and ERC-2309 all cut the cost of large mints, while low-fee chains like Solana, Polygon or Base help with day-to-day trading.

Cost Estimation

Minting, deployment and upkeep costs vary a lot by standard and chain. Batch standards save the most on big drops, as the ERC-721A numbers above show. Also budget for audits, upgrades and marketplace integration.

Marketplace and Wallet Support

You must check that your target marketplaces and wallets support the standard. ERC-721 works everywhere. ERC-1155 works on most platforms. Newer extensions like ERC-6551 and ERC-721C need testing with each partner before launch.

Metadata Flexibility

NFTs that change over time need data that can change too. So use ERC-4906 on EVM chains or CIP-68 on Cardano. On the other hand, if buyers value permanence, fixed metadata stored on IPFS or Arweave shows authenticity.

Royalty Needs

If secondary-sale income is core to your plan, remember that ERC-2981 is only a signal. For enforced royalties, use ERC-721C on EVM chains or Metaplex Core on Solana, and accept that some venues will not list you.

Blockchain Ecosystem

Your blockchain choice shapes how the NFT works. Teams often pick Ethereum for trust and deep markets, Polygon or Base for low fees, Solana for cheap mints at scale, and Cardano for its CIP-68 tools. Also compare gas and minting fees on each chain.

Picking the right NFT standard is like laying the right foundation for your NFT business. Each standard has a clear job, from one-of-a-kind art to game items made by the million. A reputed non-fungible token development company can help you match the standard to your plan before you write any code.

Pick the Best NFT Standards with Coinsclone

Coinsclone is a leading NFT token development company that turns ideas into working NFTs that are ready to scale and sell. Since 2018, our team has delivered 350+ platforms for 200+ clients across 20 industries. We build on ERC-721, ERC-1155 and their extensions, and on Solana and Cardano standards, with royalties, rentals or token bound accounts built in where your plan needs them.

If you want to create an NFT with the right token standard, talk to our technical team. We help you choose the standard, write and test the contracts, and connect them to the marketplaces your buyers use. So kickstart your NFT project with our team’s dedicated support!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are NFT standards?

NFT standards are shared rules for how non-fungible tokens are created, owned, transferred and read. On Ethereum they are published as ERCs, such as ERC-721 and ERC-1155. Because every wallet and marketplace follows the same rules, an NFT built on a standard works across the whole ecosystem.

What is the most common NFT standard?

ERC-721 is the most common NFT standard. It was the first one, it is Final, and every major wallet and marketplace supports it. ERC-1155 is the second most common, mainly in games and editions.

What is the difference between ERC-721 and ERC-1155?

ERC-721 creates one unique token per ID, with one collection per contract. ERC-1155 can hold fungible, non-fungible and semi-fungible tokens in one contract and send many of them in a single transaction, which saves gas.

Which NFT standard should I use?

Use ERC-721 for one-of-a-kind items like art, PFPs and land. Use ERC-1155 for games, editions and tickets with many copies. Then add extensions for what you need: ERC-721A for cheaper mints, ERC-2981 or ERC-721C for royalties, ERC-4907 for rentals and ERC-6551 for NFTs that own assets.

Are NFT royalties enforced?

Not by ERC-2981 alone. The standard only tells marketplaces what royalty to pay, and payment is voluntary. To enforce royalties, creators use ERC-721C on EVM chains or the royalties plugin in Metaplex Core on Solana.

What NFT standard does Solana use?

Solana uses Metaplex standards rather than ERCs. Older collections use Metaplex Token Metadata, while new projects often choose Metaplex Core, which uses one account per asset and costs less to mint.