Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, has shared plans to end compatibility with popular NFT marketplace Opensea after the latter’s most recent policy change that will end its royalty enforcement tool.
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According to the announcement shared by Yuga’s CEO, Daniel Alegre, the firm will completely phase out its support for Opensea’s Seaport by February 2024 in protest and response to Opensea’s plan to phase out Operator Filter, a tool that enforces creator royalties. This will only impact its newer collections and upgradeable contracts.
Opensea’s Operator Filter allows creators to exclusively limit the sales of their digital collectibles in marketplaces that enforce creator royalties. The tool was launched in November 2022.
BAYC Community Supports Yuga Labs’ Position
Interestingly, Yuga Lab’s decision appears to receive the cheers and backing from a majority of the community members who believe Opensea’s decision to transition into a model that will make payment of royalty fees for creators optional is a mistake that will diminish trust in the platform and consequently harm the nascent industry.Â
Notable personalities including Mark Cuban, Opensea investors, and other creators backed the decision.
Yuga Labs Banned Marketplaces From its Sewer Pass Mint
Notably, Yuga Labs’ action against Opeansea is unsurprising. Earlier in the year, the bluechip NFT creator barred the likes of Blur, SudoSwap, LooksRare, and NFTX from participating in minting its Sewer Pass. Yuga Labs Sewer Pass contains codes that automatically block transactions from wallets connected to these marketplaces because they don’t mandate NFT royalties.
The platform raked in $147.6 million in royalties from its Bored Ape, Mutant Ape, and Otherside projects in 2022.
NFT Marketplaces Battle Over Creator Royalties
The battle over NFT royalties has become an increasingly contentious subject in the digital collectible ecosystem. While some believe this is necessary to encourage and support creators, many others are of the opinion that royalty fees are unnecessary due to economic pressure. Therefore many marketplaces have opted to make royalties optional or eschew them altogether.
Recall that in 2022 NFT platform Magic Eden introduced a suite of tools that royalties are paid to creators anytime their assets are traded.
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