NFT aggregator Rarible will discontinue aggregating orders from NFT marketplaces OpenSea, LooksRare and X2Y2 by Sept. 30.
The move follows OpenSea’s decision last week to make NFT creator royalties optional for new collections from September, after similar decisions from LooksRare and X2Y2 last year.
“We support royalties. We always have and we always will,” Rarible said in an announcement yesterday. Rarible argued the industry was more than minting NFTs and had the opportunity to redefine how creativity is valued and compensated, adding that “We cannot continue to standby as that promise is taken away.”
“We stand in solidarity with creators and artists. That’s why we will no longer support marketplaces that neglect royalties,” Rarible co-founder Alex Salnikov added, urging other platforms to recognize and reward the contributions of creators.
NFT royalties debate
NFTs were initially touted for their potential to provide artists with ongoing income through royalties from continuous sales of their collections. Yet, when NFT marketplace X2Y2 introduced a 0% royalty fee for creators in February 2022, it sparked a debate within the community about the actual necessity of such royalties, with platforms like Sudoswap, Magic Eden and LooksRare following suit later that year.
OpenSea was originally a strong supporter of creator royalties, setting them at up to 10%. However, OpenSea reduced royalties in February of this year after tensions with the competing NFT platform Blur, which collects a small fee of 0.5% for creator royalties.
OpenSea’s latest move to make royalties optional sees the NFT marketplace disable the OpenSea Operator Filter — a tool that enforced creator royalties.
Opensea investor Mark Cuban said removing royalties was a “huge mistake,” with Yuga Labs — the project behind NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club — also slamming the decision.
NFT marketplaces have struggled this year, seeing six months of consecutive declines in trading volume, according to The Block’s data dashboard. NFT royalties also recently hit the lowest volumes in two years.