- OpenSea announced a massive structuring around lower platform fees and greater creator earnings
- NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily ETH trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor.
- OpenSea is moving forward with their strategy to bring back more customers to its platform.
Primary nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced a massive structuring around lower platform fees and greater creator earnings as competing marketplaces continue to drain away its once dominant user base.
According to data from Nansen, on Feb. 18, NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily Ether trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor.
As a reactionary measure, OpenSea announced three significant changes to win back its migrating customers. The measures include a 0% fee for a limited time, introducing optional creator earnings, and leniency on other operators.
OpenSea admitted losing users to other “NFT marketplaces that don’t fully enforce creator earnings,” and the new measures are an attempt to revitalize its dominance in the space, adding:
“Recent events – including Blur’s decision to roll back creator earnings (even on filtered collections) and the false choice they’re forcing creators to make between liquidity on Blur or OpenSea – prove that our attempts are not working.”
OpenSea believes that it defended creator earnings on all collections while reiterating its support for Operator Filter — a function aimed at helping creators secure their revenue for the resale of their work. However, this filter proactively blocked recommendations of marketplaces that sported the same policies.
Blur’s daily trading volume supremacy can be attributed to its new royalty policy showcasing differences in royalty payment options between its platform and OpenSea. It read:
“OpenSea’s current royalty policy prevents collections from being able to earn royalties everywhere. They have cited various reasons for this (see FAQ), but the result is that creators are limited to earning royalties on only one platform at a time.”
Amid the royalty war between the two marketplaces, community members highlighted the importance of competition in the industry. If it weren’t for zero royalty marketplaces, more prominent players like OpenSea would eventually increase the fee structure, hurting creators and collectors.
Moreover, OpenSea plans to continue testing the model and identify what works best for the community and the organization. Community members speculate that OpenSea would probably increase its platform fees if it successfully manages to amass its lost customers — a predatory move often noticed in industries with less competition.
