Launching a collection on Arkena takes about thirty minutes for the setup, plus the time it takes to upload your artwork to IPFS. The flow walks you through a creation wizard that covers the on-chain configuration; the artwork side is largely up to you.
This page is the long one. Read it end to end before clicking anything in production.
1. Asset preparation
Before opening the wizard, get your assets ready.
Images. Aim for 1:1 aspect ratio at 1500×1500 px or higher. PNG is preferred for art with transparency; JPEG for photographic work. Avoid animated GIFs — render to MP4 if you need motion.
Metadata. Each item gets a small JSON file describing its name, description, image URL, and trait values. You upload these alongside the artwork during the create flow.
Hosting. Both the images and the metadata JSON go on IPFS so the references on Canton stay immutable. We recommend Pinata or web3.storage — both have free tiers that comfortably cover collections of a few thousand items.
2. Open /create and redeem your invite
You need a creator invite to reach this page — see Apply for creator access if you haven't yet.
Open arkena.io/create. The page asks for your invite code (or, if
you've claimed before, just your connected wallet). Past the gate, the
form opens with a live preview that updates as you type.
Fields:
- Name — what holders see in the marketplace.
- Symbol — a short tag (3–8 chars). Not visible to users, but used in on-chain identifiers.
- Description — a short paragraph for the collection page.
- Royalty % — the percentage of every secondary-market sale that routes back to your creator wallet. 0% to 10% is typical. This is set once and cannot be changed after launch.
- Supply cap — the maximum number of items. Items beyond this number cannot be minted, ever. Pick carefully.
3. Configure phases
A launch is one or more mint phases. Each phase has a price, a slice of the supply, an eligibility rule, and an active window.
Common patterns:
- One open phase — the simplest. Anyone can mint at one price until the supply runs out.
- Whitelist + public — phase 1 is whitelist-only at a discounted price; phase 2 opens to everyone at a higher price.
- OG / whitelist / public — three phases at three price tiers, the classic launchpad pattern.
Each phase configuration can be edited until it goes live. After it goes live, you can close it (stops accepting mints) but cannot change the price.
4. Whitelist a phase
For phases with eligibility, open the whitelist panel for that phase and paste your list of party IDs (one per line, or comma-separated). The wizard validates each entry as you go and shows a count of valid / invalid / duplicate.
When you publish the phase, the wizard derives a Merkle root from the final list and writes it on-chain. The Merkle root is what makes large whitelists efficient — each minter proves their inclusion at mint time without the contract having to scan the whole list.
5. Publish
Click Publish. The wallet signs a single transaction that creates the collection on-chain. Within seconds the collection is visible on the marketplace, in Coming soon state — phases are configured but none is active yet.
6. Open the launch
When you're ready, activate the first phase from your creator dashboard. From this moment, holders eligible for that phase can mint.
- ↳#247to arkena::a3…91Public
- ↳#246to arkena::7d…b2Public
- ↳#245to arkena::e1…44Whitelist
The dashboard shows mints landing in real time, remaining supply per phase, and revenue accrued.
7. Monitor and rotate
When a phase reaches its supply slice, close it and open the next. The flow is:
- Click Close phase on the active phase.
- Click Open phase on the next one.
- Confirm in the wallet.
Each transition is one signature. The supply for unsold items in a closed phase rolls into the next phase's available supply by default — unless you opt to burn the unsold allocation when configuring the new phase.
When something goes wrong
- Phase priced wrong, already live. You can close the phase and configure a new one with the correct price. The closed phase's remaining supply rolls forward.
- Whitelist missing entries. Re-open the whitelist panel, paste the additions, re-publish the phase. Existing mints from that phase remain valid.
- Supply cap hit before all phases ran. Intentional or not, the collection is now sealed. Subsequent phase activations have no effect.
What's next
- Read Fees and pricing to understand what holders see at mint time.
- Make sure your wallet is solid — Security best practices matters more for creator wallets than for anyone else.