Yuga Labs to wind back from OpenSea over its axing of royalty enforcements

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs is set to wind down support for OpenSea following the platform’s upcoming removal of its on-chain royalty enforcement tool, Operator Filter.

The Operator Filter was launched in November 2022, enabling creators to restrict secondary nonfungible token (NFT) sales to marketplaces that enforce creator royalties, thus filtering out platforms like Blur.

However, on Aug.17, OpenSea revealed that it will “sunset” the tool at the end of August, citing a lack of “opt-in by the entire ecosystem,” platforms bypassing the tool and pushback from creators.

The following day, Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre shared an announcement via X (formerly Twitter), stating that the firm will gradually wind down its use of OpenSea’s Seaport marketplace smart contract:

“Yuga Labs will begin the process of sunsetting support for OpenSea’s SeaPort for all upgradable contracts and any new collections, with the aim of this being complete in February 2024 in tandem with OpenSea’s approach.”

“Yuga believes in protecting creator royalties so creators are properly compensated for their work,” he added.

On @opensea’s decision to sunset their Operator Filter. pic.twitter.com/ahc155WWkX

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) August 18, 2023

The post was met with a positive reaction from members of the BAYC community, while content creators/NFT project founders such as EllioTrades and Alex Becker also praised the move.

The CEO and co-founder of the Forgotten Runes Wizards Cult NFT project, dotta, supported the move, saying they loved to see how Yuga Labs responded to OpenSea.

“The creators have enough power in aggregate to move to royalty-paying marketplaces. Yuga leading the charge is the spark that was needed.”

Yuga is banning OpenSea in light of their choice to stop enforcing creator royalties

You love to see it

Like I mentioned yesterday, OpenSea taught us how to filter exchanges with bad behavior by giving us the OperatorFilter registry

Those of us that implemented it, now plan on…

— dotta (@dotta) August 18, 2023

Luca Netz, the CEO of the Pudgy Penguins NFT project, also hinted toward following Yuga Labs’ lead, responding to the firm’s post by calling it a “great move.”

In an Aug. 18 post from Coinbase NFT highlighting its “commitment to enforcing creator royalties,” Netz stated, “Let’s talk.”

Let’s talk

— Luca Netz (@LucaNetz) August 18, 2023

Divided market

The notion of creator royalties and whether they should be supported and enforced has become a divisive topic in the NFT community over the past year or so.

In the early stages of the NFT boom around 2021, enforcing creator royalties was the general practice. However, marketplaces like Blur stormed the market in October 2022 and secured significant market share by offering zero trading fees and an optional creator royalty payment model.

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As a result, trading fees and royalty percentages started to decrease across the board as marketplaces competed for users.

As it stands, it appears that the NFT community is split between those who favor the cheaper NFT trading model of platforms like Blur — arguing for different methods of creator compensation — and those who staunchly advocate for the need to pay royalties.

In their current form, NFT royalties don’t make sense – owed for perpetuity – owed even if sold at loss -unenforceable without compromising ownership

Isn’t it better to make them optional and incentivise compliance, while working out other monetisation avenues for artists?

— scriblooooor (@scriblooooor) August 18, 2023

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