SNEAK PEEK
- Almost all Solana NFT markets with any sizable market share have now either rejected or made royalties optional.
- Hobbs has had greater NFT success than most other musicians.
- Hobbs’ success has been boosted by the current QQL launch.
In the midst of the present crypto bear market, the NFT field is evolving as many markets opt to either ignore or allow traders to decide whether to pay creator royalties. The controversy over royalties has been raging among artists and collectors for months, but the NFT sector as a whole is now quickly adopting the practice.
The final big domino in the Solana NFT market fell on Friday when Magic Eden, the largest marketplace on Solana by a wide margin, announced that creator royalties will no longer be required in response to its significant market share loss to upstarts who disdain payments. As a result, NFT traders on Solana will no longer be charged fees on each transaction that range from 5% to 10%, potentially increasing sellers’ profit margins at the expense of project founders’ and creators’ income.
Marketplaces like X2Y2 and Sudoswap have gained traction on Ethereum, the leading blockchain platform for NFTs since they partially push back on royalties. The Ethereum market hasn’t experienced as much of a “race to the lowest” on costs as the Solana market, but the main marketplace OpenSea still pays creator royalties, as do other exchanges.
Many artists are protesting markets that refuse to pay royalties. Tyler Hobbs is the generative artist responsible for the priceless Art Blocks: Fidenza collection and the upcoming QQL project, both of which were minted on Ethereum. This week, he told Decrypt that, despite the chance that the Ethereum market may also refuse royalties on a large scale, he believes that producers and collectors there have different attitudes than those on Solana.
