Atomicals NFTs

An Atomicals NFT is a single non-fungible object created with the nft operation. It carries metadata and optionally embedded files, it lives in a Bitcoin output, and it has an ordered history.

Subtypes matter

The same nft operation produces several different things depending on the request in the payload:

Request	Result
none	A plain NFT
request_realm	A top-level Realm
request_subrealm	A Subrealm under a parent
request_container	A Container collection identity
item claim against a sealed manifest	A DMINT item

An integration that expects a plain NFT must reject the subtypes it does not handle rather than treating them as generic. The Universe Marketplace generic NFT lane does exactly that: it rejects realm, subrealm, FT, container, and item subtypes.

What an NFT carries

• Metadata, arbitrary and unverified.
• Zero or more named files with declared content types and recorded digests.
• Mutable state, until sealed.
• A complete operation history.

See metadata and media and permanent storage.

How an NFT moves

Spending the output that carries it moves it, subject to the non-fungible allocation branch. Unlike the fungible branch, an NFT is a whole object: it lands somewhere or it does not.

The hazards are different too. An output can carry several Atomicals at once, and separating them requires a deliberate operation. See splat and mixed outputs.

Reading pages

Topic	Page
Minting an NFT and what the payload contains	Minting
Files, content types, digests, and safe rendering	Metadata and media
Normal transfers and swap transfers	Transfers
Splat and shared outputs	Splat and mixed outputs
Collections and Container membership	Collections and Containers
Listing, buying, and settling	Marketplace