- Fees will be zero for a limited time, creator royalties are optional
- Creators can’t collect full royalties on Blur unless they blocklist OpenSea
OpenSea, the world’s most successful NFT platform until recently, announced it would do away with marketplace fees in an effort to keep abreast of the competition. That would mainly refer to Blur, an increasingly popular NFT marketplace that doesn’t charge fees and is rapidly taking market share away from OpenSea.
Fees are temporarily suspended
OpenSea tweeted that its fees would be zero for “a limited time.” Creator royalties will be optional and will start at 0.5%. OpenSea has removed some marketplaces from its blocklist that don’t mandate full royalty payments, permitting sales on platforms with optional royalties. Blur is also no longer on their blocklist because they delivered “on their promise."
The start of a new era
OpenSea will never force creators to choose between them and Blur if they want to earn full royalties on their works. The marketplace calls this “the start of a new era.” They intend to test the model to strike a balance of motivation and incentives for creators, buyers, collectors, and sellers.
Tension between OpenSea and Blur came to a head over the past week after the latter released its native token. Its trading volume exceeded OpenSea’s on Wednesday, the first time since Blur went live a few months ago.
Where is the feud going?
OpenSea has traditionally been a hardliner on the subject of creator royalties. In November 2022, the marketplace implemented an enforcement tool generating royalties for all creators. More specifically, royalties for newly listed collections were delegated on the blockchain. The tool blocked buyers from reselling these collections on marketplaces like Blur, where royalties are optional.
Blur found a gap in January, making it possible for creators who received royalties on OpenSea to uphold their rates. On February 15, Blur published a blog post titled, “How to earn royalties on Blur,” which presented the differences in royalty payments between their marketplace and OpenSea. According to the post, creators can’t collect full royalties on Blur unless they blocklist OpenSea.
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