Explainers
What Is the Cycles Minting Canister (CMC)?
The Cycles Minting Canister is the official Internet Computer service that turns ICP into cycles and allocates canisters. ICPay talks to CMC from your browser — create, top up, and mint — with no custom mint backend.
September 5, 2026 · 9 min read
What CMC does
- Create canisters via
notify_create_canister - Top up canisters via
notify_top_up - Mint cycles onto the cycles ledger via
notify_mint_cycles - Publish the live ICP → XDR rate used for conversion
How a CMC call works
- Transfer ICP on the official ledger to CMC with the correct memo (create, top-up, or mint).
- Call the matching notify method so CMC burns ICP and credits cycles / creates the canister.
- Leftover value after fees becomes cycles (or a new canister ID for create).
Create deducts a fixed 500 billion cycle network fee. ICPay requires at least 0.5 ICP so the estimate clears that fee at typical CMC rates.
CMC vs ICPay wallet
ICPay holds your ICP custodially for everyday sends. Canister tools still settle through CMC and the ICP ledger from your Internet Identity when needed — same official path as NNS / dfx, just in the browser.
