{"id":21414,"date":"2023-08-22T00:45:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T00:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/yuga-labs-to-block-nft-trades-on-opensea-over-creator-royalties\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T00:45:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T00:45:17","slug":"yuga-labs-to-block-nft-trades-on-opensea-over-creator-royalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/yuga-labs-to-block-nft-trades-on-opensea-over-creator-royalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuga Labs to Block NFT Trades on OpenSea Over Creator Royalties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yuga Labs and CryptoPunks are the two latest NFT brands to stand up and speak out against OpenSea\u2019s extremely controversial decision last week to (once again) do away with enforcing \u201cmandatory\u201d creator royalty fees \u2013 by blocking all support for any new NFT collections on OpenSea\u2019s SeaPort by February 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yuga Labs, the parent company of both BAYC and CryptoPunks announced via \u201cX\u201d (formerly Twitter) that it was committed to helping \u201cfoster an ecosystem where\u2026creators are rewarded for their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor as much as NFTs have been about users truly owning their digital assets, they\u2019ve also been about empowering creators. Yuga believes in protecting creator royalties so creators are properly compensated for their work,\u201d said Yuga\u2019s CEO Daniel Alegre in his tweet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Emily Kitts, a Yuga Labs spokesperson, told The Verge<\/em> <\/em>that the company will be working toward \u201cdisallowing OpenSea\u2019s marketplace to trade [its] collections as they phase out royalties,\u201d but didn\u2019t expand upon which NFT collections would be affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Irony of NFTs and Digital Art<\/h2>\n

The biggest selling point of digital art, especially digital collectibles (NFTs) was that these artists were put front-and-center on these canvases and rewarded each time their artwork was resold on a secondary market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For companies like Yuga, who first made a name for itself after debuting its industry-leading Bored Ape collection, the royalty fees added up to around $35 million for those collectibles alone \u2013 all through OpenSea as of November 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turning to last week\u2019s shocking announcement from OpenSea, the NFT marketplace clarified that creator royalty fees wouldn\u2019t be going away, and instead, it\u2019s simply doing away with \u201cthe ineffective unilateral enforcement of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Starting Aug 31, we\u2019ll:
\u2013 Sunset the OpenSea Operator Filter
\u2013 Move to optional creator fees on all secondary sales for new collections
\u2013 Improve visibility of creator fee settings and listings on buyer & seller side<\/p>\n

More below:<\/p>\n

\u2014 OpenSea (@opensea) August 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

By nature, this sent a nasty shockwave throughout the digital art community and to artists who have all vocalized their disbelief and anger as they have begun taking a stand against OpenSea\u2019s lack of respect and appreciation for the creators it has continued to profit off of over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The irony here, of course, is that the promises by companies integrating Web3 infrastructures who wanted to enhance productivity and accessibility, as well as create new revenue streams for creators with digital art, didn\u2019t really mean much given that the revenue streams were essentially in the hands of NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this doesn\u2019t help the overall sentiment towards Web3 and NFTs, especially in the current market decline where the average person understandably has no reason to trust in these infrastructures or promises by big tech and Web3-native brands in wanting to enrich the lives of the masses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Major IP Gone, What\u2019s Next for OpenSea?<\/h2>\n

While NFT marketplaces like OpenSea may have the royalties card within their control, it\u2019s certainly not sustainable, especially since intellectual property (IP) like Yuga\u2019s BAYC and CryptoPunks heavily contribute to and fuel their success. In other words, without these IP franchises, what would these marketplaces do?<\/p>\n

According to data collected from Ninjalerts, Yuga\u2019s 30-day volume is approximately 80% the size of OpenSeas, resting at $52.8 million and $66.7 million, respectively. <\/p>\n

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Yuga’s 30d volume is 80% the size of OpenSea’s<\/p>\n

This is the leverage that IP has over NFT Marketplaces<\/p>\n

The NFT Marketplaces are dead without the most important IP<\/p>\n

Will this lead to walled garden marketplaces by IP owners? That’s much more complicated, so I’m not sure.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/FHdWG99q07<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 trevor.btc (@TO) August 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Just keep seeing bad data floating around. Yuga is extremely important to OpenSea. But to say that 80% of OS revenue is from Yuga misses the fact that the vast majority of Yuga volume isn’t on OpenSea. Actual data below, number is closer to 15% recently. https:\/\/t.co\/mqzYwWTWux pic.twitter.com\/ZDwsK6HUl0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NFTstats.eth (@punk9059) August 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Blur, which recently surpassed OpenSea as the leading NFT marketplace by trading volume, enforces a 0.5 percent fee, which, unfortunately, is below the average 5 to 10 percent royalty fees that are paid out to that NFT artist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beginning August 31, OpenSea will implement its \u201coptional\u201d royalties mechanism for all new NFT collections, giving collectors the option on whether or not they want to show their appreciation for the artist whose work they are paying to purchase.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n