Solana NFT marketplace development starts with three decisions: which buyers and collections the marketplace serves, whether it runs its own program or builds on an existing one, and which features it needs at launch. This guide covers those decisions, the feature checklist, the team, the revenue model and the launch steps.
Asset standards, escrowless listings, the Anchor program and DAS indexing are covered in the companion guide on how to build a Solana NFT marketplace.
Who builds a Solana NFT marketplace in 2026
Magic Eden and Tensor carry most Solana NFT trading. Magic Eden closed its Bitcoin and EVM marketplaces in March 2026 to focus on Solana. The Tensor Foundation took over the Tensor marketplace from Tensor Labs in November 2025.
A general marketplace has little room next to those two, so new Solana marketplaces serve a narrower group:
- A game. Players trade in-game items inside the game's own store, with the game's rules on what can be sold.
- A brand or loyalty program. Customers trade or redeem compressed NFTs that cost a tiny fraction of a cent each to mint.
- One artist community or curated platform. The marketplace sells only approved collections and controls its own royalty policy.
- A real-world asset platform. NFTs stand for physical items or legal claims, and the marketplace adds identity checks and custody.
Build options
| Option | What the team builds | Fits | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front end on an existing marketplace program | The website, the indexer and a fee setup on top of a public program | Communities and brands that need a custom storefront fast | The program's rules and fees apply. The team cannot change the on-chain logic. |
| Fork of an open-source program | A modified copy of an audited program, deployed under the team's own address | Projects that need one or two custom rules | The team owns upgrades and needs a new audit for its changes. |
| Custom program | A new Anchor program for listings, bids and settlement | Games and asset platforms with unusual trading rules | The longest build and a full audit |
The Tensor Foundation publishes its marketplace program under the Apache-2.0 license. According to the repository, the program splits trading fees 50/50 between the Tensor protocol and the broker that brought the trade, so a third-party front end can act as that broker and earn half of the fee.
Metaplex's Auction House program, which many early marketplaces used, is now on the Metaplex list of deprecated programs, so a new project should not build on it.
Feature checklist for a Solana NFT marketplace
| User | Features |
|---|---|
| Buyers | Collection pages, trait filters, price history, buy now, collection bids, sweeping several items in one transaction, and wallet connection for Phantom, Solflare and Backpack |
| Sellers | Listing without moving the NFT out of the wallet, bulk listing, price edits, delisting, and accepting bids |
| Creators | A collection page, a royalty setting, verified status, and a mint page if the marketplace also launches collections |
| Operators | Collection verification, spam filters, fee settings, reports on sales and fees, and tools to hide stolen or flagged items |
The marketplace must support the asset standards its collections use. Older collections use Token Metadata NFTs and programmable NFTs (pNFTs). Metaplex recommends Metaplex Core for new collections, and loyalty and game projects often use compressed NFTs. The technical Solana guide compares these standards and their mint costs.
What Solana dapp development involves
A Solana NFT marketplace is a Solana dapp, and Solana dapp development has its own skills and tools:
- On-chain program. Programs are Solana's smart contracts, and developers write them in Rust, usually with the Anchor framework.
- Accounts. A Solana program keeps no data inside itself; data lives in separate accounts, and each transaction must list every account it touches.
- Client code. Front ends use TypeScript with Solana Kit (
@solana/kit) and Metaplex Umi. - Fees. Each signature costs a base fee of 5,000 lamports, and busy periods also need a priority fee and a compute-unit limit.
- Indexing. The Digital Asset Standard (DAS) API, offered by many Solana RPC providers, returns NFTs by owner, collection or creator.
Rust and Anchor developers with production Solana experience are fewer than Solidity developers.
Team and skills
| Role | Work on the project |
|---|---|
| Solana program engineer | Writes or adapts the marketplace program and its tests |
| Backend engineer | Builds the indexer, the API, webhooks and the metadata cache |
| Front-end engineer | Builds the storefront, wallet connection and transaction flows |
| Designer | Designs collection pages, listing flows and mobile layouts |
| Security auditor (external) | Reviews account checks, signer checks and derived-address seeds before mainnet |
A front end on an existing program needs mainly the backend, front-end and design roles, while a custom program needs all five. The technical guide gives a team size and timeline estimate for a custom build.
Revenue and fees
- Trading fee. Most marketplaces take a percentage of each sale, and on a shared program such as Tensor's, the front end earns the broker share.
- Royalty policy. Metaplex Core assets and pNFTs enforce creator royalties through their own rules, but for older Token Metadata NFTs each marketplace decides whether to pay royalties.
- Launch fees. A marketplace that also runs mints can charge creators for launches.
- Premium tools. Some marketplaces charge for analytics or bulk trading tools.
Risks
- Liquidity. Traders follow volume, so a new marketplace needs a community or a collection that brings its own buyers.
- Program bugs. Most Solana program exploits come from a missing signer, owner or seed check, which a smart contract audit focuses on.
- Indexer outages. Compressed NFT trades need a current Merkle proof from a DAS provider, so if the provider fails, those trades stop.
- Network congestion. Solana had several outages between 2022 and early 2024. Since then the main risk is congestion, which priority fees and retries handle.
- Market size. Much speculative trading on Solana has moved from NFTs to memecoins.
Launch steps
- Choose the niche and the collections the marketplace will list at launch.
- Choose a build option: a front end on a public program, a fork, or a custom program.
- List the asset standards, the fee and the royalty policy.
- Build the indexer, the storefront and the wallet connection, and build and test any custom program on devnet at the same time.
- Commission an audit of any program the team wrote or changed.
- Launch with partner collections whose holders will trade on the new marketplace.
Teams comparing chains can read the guides to a BNB Chain NFT marketplace and layer 2 NFTs on Ethereum. The NFT marketplace development guide covers features on any chain.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Solana NFT marketplace be built without writing a program?
Yes. A team can build a front end and indexer on top of a public marketplace program, such as the Tensor Foundation's program, and then earns a broker share of fees but cannot change the on-chain rules.
Which language is used for Solana dapp development?
Solana programs are written in Rust, usually with the Anchor framework, and front ends use TypeScript with Solana Kit and Metaplex Umi.
Which NFT standards should a new Solana marketplace support?
A general marketplace supports Token Metadata NFTs, pNFTs, Metaplex Core assets and compressed NFTs. A niche marketplace can support only the standard its collections use.
Are royalties enforced on Solana?
Metaplex Core assets and pNFTs enforce royalties through their own rules, but for older Token Metadata NFTs royalty payment depends on each marketplace's policy.