NFT marketplace OpenSea is changing the cost structure for makers.
The platform has chosen to make creator fees optional for new collections after August 31. It will also disable the OpenSea Operator Filter, a tool that forced creator royalties, according to a statement.
For collections that have used the filter until that date, creator fee royalties will be enforced on OpenSea until February 29, after which the fees will become optional.
“To be clear, creator fees aren’t going away — just their ineffective, one-sided enforcement,” OpenSea wrote.
“In November 2022, we launched the Operator Filter, a tool designed to give creators more control by limiting the sale of their collections to web3 marketplaces that enforce creator fees on secondary sales. It was intended to give creators more control over their web3 business models, but it required the buy-in from everyone in the web3 ecosystem, and unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
The NFT royalty debate
Royalties were once touted as one of the most utilitarian use cases for NFTs, allowing artists to generate income from the continued sale of their work. However, after the token-based platform X2Y2 experimented with 0% royalty fees for creators in February 2022, a debate erupted in the crypto community about whether they were even needed at all.
OpenSea was strong with enforcement of creator royalties and implemented royalties of up to 10%. However, OpenSea cut royalties in February after tensions with NFT platform Blur, which has a 0.5% maker royalty fee.
As of July 5 of this year, NFT royalties had reached their lowest volumes in two years.