Major nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced a massive structure of lower platform fees and greater creator income as competing markets continue to chip away at an already dominant user base.
On February 18, the NFT market Blur surpassed OpenSea in Ethereum (ETH) daily trading volume as users – hoping for more returns on their NFT investments – looked for trading arenas that could work to their advantage, Nansen data showed.
As a reactionary step, OpenSea announced three major changes to win back migrating customers. These measures include a 0% fee for a limited time, the introduction of optional creator income and other operator flexibility.
We’re making some big changes today:
1) OpenSea Fees → 0% for a limited time
2) Move to optional creator income (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new)
3) Markets with the same policy will not be blocked by the operator’s filter– OpenSea (@opensea) February 17, 2023
OpenSea admits to losing users to “other NFT markets that don’t account for creator earnings,” and the new measures are an attempt to revive its dominance in the space, adding:
“Recent events – including Blur’s decision to refund creators’ earnings (even in filtered collections) and the false choice forcing creators to make between liquidity in Blur or OpenSea – prove that our efforts are not working.”
OpenSea believes that they are protecting the income of creators in all collections while reiterating their support for Filter Operators – a function aimed at helping creators secure income for the resale of their work. However, this filter proactively blocks market recommendations that use the same policy.
The supremacy of Blur’s daily trading volume can be attributed to the new royalty policy that shows the difference in royalty payment options between the platform and OpenSea. It reads:
“OpenSea’s current royalty policy prevents collections from earning royalties anywhere. They cite various reasons for this (see FAQ), but the end result is that creators are limited to earning royalties on only one platform at a time.
Amid the royalty war between the two markets, community members highlighted the importance of competition in the industry. In the absence of a zero royalty market, larger players like OpenSea will eventually increase their fee structure, which will have a negative impact on creators and collectors.
In addition, OpenSea plans to continue to test the model and identify what works best for the community and organization. Community members speculated that OpenSea may increase its platform fees in the future if it succeeds in collecting lost customers – a predatory move often seen in industries with less competition.
related: eBay’s NFT platform KnownOrigin launches creator smart contract
The appointment of YouTube’s new CEO Neal Mohan is considered a victory for the crypto community considering Mohan’s tendency to use NFT and Web3 as a revenue stream for creators.
thanks, @SusanWojcicki. It was amazing working with you over the years. You’ve made YouTube an incredible home for creators and viewers. I am excited to continue this amazing and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead… https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023
As reported by Cointelegraph, Mohan – when he was the product head of YouTube – outlined a tentative plan in February 2022 to integrate features such as Metaverse-based content experiences and content tokenization through NFT.