Creator royalties to remain in OpenSea and X2Y2

Anna Evans on March 6, 2023

Image source: Coin Market Cap

Creator royalties have become the hottest topic in the NFT space for the past couple of weeks.

For weeks, it appeared that most of the NFT market favored rejecting creator royalties.

OpenSea, the largest marketplace in the space, also considered making creator royalties optional.

However, creator pushback prompted the marketplace to maintain royalties.

Even rival Ethereum marketplace is saying it will enforce creator royalties.

The news

X2Y2, Ethereum’s NFT marketplace, launched earlier this year and witnessed significant trading activity in the summer.

Over the weekend, X2Y2 announced that it would enforce creator royalties on all NFT collections, from existing projects to newly-launched ones.

The marketplace previously offered a flexible royalty model that gave creators and collectors input on how X2Y2 enforced royalties for projects.

However, only specific types of NFT projects (artwork and access passes) could choose to have royalties fully enforced.

PFP projects or Profile Picture projects were ineligible for the option.

Praise

X2Y2 praised OpenSea for taking a stand for creator royalties on Twitter over the weekend.

The marketplace admitted that many new projects used OpenSea’s blocklist code banning NFTs from being traded on marketplaces without royalties.

“Putting belief aside, if there was anything self-evident in crypto, it’s the ‘code,’” X2Y2 wrote.

“Since [OpenSea] released the OperatorFilter two weeks ago, most of the new projects have sided with it.”

“‘Code is law,’ and we respect the law.”

X2Y2 shared that it removed the flexible royalty setting for new projects using the OpenSea blocklist code.

The marketplace also said it will now enforce creator royalties for existing NFT projects.

“With OpenSea risking its market share and taking a brave move to defend royalties, they have our respect,” X2Y2 wrote.

OpenSea

The top NFT marketplace responded to X2Y2 on Twitter, saying it removed them from its marketplace blocklist.

As a result, NFTs from creators using the OperatorFilter code can now be traded on X2Y2.

“Proud to stand with you – and the many brilliant creators in our community – on this critical measure,” OpenSea wrote.

“We hope other marketplaces will continue to join us. Onwards and upwards.”

Royalties

NFT royalties are fees taken from a secondary market sale.

They usually range between 5% and 10% of the sale price and go to the original creator.

Royalties cannot be fully enforced on-chain with popular NFT standards on chains like Ethereum and Solana.

However, top marketplaces previously respected creator royalties, deeming it a social construct.

Creators and collectors consider royalties as critical components of the Web3 ethos.

Over the summer, market momentum started shifting away from creator royalties.

New trading platforms like SudoSwap and Yawww ignored royalties to move away from market share from top marketplaces.

After Magic Eden’s shift last month, nearly all Solana trades are done on platforms that don’t require royalties.

Earlier this month, OpenSea said it was considering a move away from creator royalties, following moves by marketplaces like X2Y2, Blur, and LooksRare to make them optional.

However, OpenSea faced significant backlash from creators like Yuga Labs.

Streetwear brand The Hundreds canceled a planned NFT drop on OpenSea following its consideration.

Last week, OpenSea changed its mind and announced it would continue with royalties on all projects: old, new, and those using its blocklist product.

Reference:

Ethereum NFT marketplace X2Y2 will enforce royalties following OpenSea’s ‘brave move’

69 DeGods NFTs swept in massive buy

Greg Jackson on January 24, 2023

Image source:

DeGods: NFT whales are individuals or entities that own large amounts of NFTs, which are digital assets that are unique and cannot be replicated.

They may be collectors, investors, or creators of NFTs, and they often have significant influence in the market.

Due to their ownership of a large number of NFTs, they can potentially control the supply and demand of certain NFTs, as well as the prices.

One NFT whale spent a bulk to obtain 69 DeGods NFTs through Magic Eden, intending to bridge them to Ethereum.

DeGods NFT

In the Solana NFT space, DeGods have become one of the most prominent NFTs, racking the most trading volume in SOL than other projects.

DeGods is a Solana-based NFT collection of deflationary art comprising 10,000 virtual gods.

The NFT project plans to make the switch to Ethereum, attracting the attention of a prominent player in the space.

DeGods NFTs launched in late 2021 but only rose in prominence and value in 2022.

DeLabs developer, under Rohun Vora or the pseudonymous Frank, debuted a reward token.

It also rolled out new art pieces and bought the rights to a BIG3 basketball league team.

Finally, DeLabs launched y00ts, a follow-up project to DeGods.

The news

On Monday, Pokeee, a pseudonymous NFT trader, spent almost $1 million to buy 69 DeGods NFTs.

He bought the NFTs via the Magic Eden marketplace with tools that allow buyers to “sweep the floor,” otherwise known as buying specific amounts of NFTs from a project.

Traders typically purchase amounts of low-priced NFTs in a project as an investment, especially in the event of the collection becoming a future success.

Purchase buildup

On January 13, Pokeee promised to make the massive purchase if his tweet reached 1,000 likes .

He said he would buy 69 DeGods NFTs to support the project’s switch to Ethereum.

Three days later, he made the purchase for over $900,000.

The marketplace

Previously, Magic Eden only allowed 50 NFTs to be purchased at a time with its bulk buying feature.

However, a prospective buyer prompted the marketplace to upgrade its functionality and enable the larger mass purchase.

The buyer urged the marketplace that the change was of “ultimate inconvenience.”

Pokeee

The massive DeGods buyer claims to own the Pokeee.eth Ethereum, holding three valuable Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, the titular Ethereum Name Service (ENS), and other NFT collectibles.

In addition, Magic Eden posted through its website, saying Pokeee claimed he runs a private crypto fund.

The NFT collector also confirmed he bought the NFTs to aid the move to Ethereum.

“My purpose of this investment is actually to have them bridged to ETH,” said Pokeee.

“Due to on-chain risks, I wasn’t able to deploy larger portions of my portfolio into Solana.”

“I was having fun in Solana on smaller NFTs and mints back then.”

Trading volume

According to CryptoSlam data, DeGods have garnered over $135 million worth of trading volume.

The NFT project’s total USD trading value beat projects like Solana Monkey Business and Degenerate Ape Academy, both of which were popular SOL had more value.

As a result, DeGods tops all SOL projects with 3.7 million SOL worth of trading.

The switch

In late December, DeLabs announced that the DeGods NFT project will be bridged to Ethereum’s mainnet.

Meanwhile, y00ts will head over to Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain.

DeLabs plans to complete the switches by the end of the current quarter.

In addition, they disclosed that they received a $3 million grant from Polygon Labs, allowing y00ts to switch over to Polygon.

DeLabs will put the funds into hiring efforts and later launch a crypto incubator as a means to support the NFT ecosystem.

References:

A Bored Ape whale just spent nearly $1 million on DeGods NFTs

Polygon paid y00ts NFT collection $3 million to leave Solana

Yuga Labs’ founders stand with creators for marketplace creator royalties

Greg Jackson on January 16, 2023

Image source: The Cryptonomist

Yuga Labs’ founders, the people behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, are calling out marketplaces rejecting creator royalties.

The founders defended NFT creators in an issue causing marketplaces to reject them.

The Yuga Labs’ founders proposed a community-governed ‘allowlist’ model that allows creators to decide the marketplaces that can handle secondary sales of their works.

Royalty

The top NFT marketplace OpenSea made the rounds over the weekend when it said it might follow the current trend to reject royalty for NFT creators.

The trend includes the absence of enforcing creator royalty on secondary sales.

As a result, many creators are opposing their decisions.

In a turn of events, Yuga Labs’ founders also join their cause.

Founders Wylie “Gordon Goner” Aronow, Greg “Garga” Solano, Kerem “Tomato” Atalay, and 10KTF CTO Randy “Melonpan” Chang published a post recently.

The post says that the Yuga Labs’ founders are decrying the industry’s shift from honoring creator royalties.

Instead, they proposed a technical solution to enforce creator royalty.

The proposal

The Yuga Labs’ founders suggest an ‘allowlist’ model that lets creators approve secondary trades through marketplaces that honor royalties.

If a marketplace’s smart contract is listed, the transaction goes through; if not, it won’t.

However, standard wallet-to-wallet transfers will remain unaffected.

“The NFT ecosystem would be a tiny fraction of what it is today if it weren’t for creator royalties,” the Yuga Labs’ founders wrote.

“The leading marketplaces of the past couple years would be nowhere if they hadn’t supported them.”

They noted that when the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs launched last year at $220 worth of Ethereum, they set a 2.5% creator royalty on secondary sales.

The founders explained that it’s the amount OpenSea charged for its marketplace fee.

The royalty fee is lower than what other NFT creators chose, which is often between 5% and 10% of the sale price.

“The end result has been that OpenSea has made around $35 million dollars from Bored Ape sales on its platform, not including any of our other collections,” they wrote.

“We’ve never met the founders, but perhaps they have a beach house somewhere with a plaque for us.”

Yuga Labs

According to Galaxy Digital, the BAYC founders earned more than $147 million from creator royalties on secondary sales last month.

However, NFT royalties today aren’t as durable.

While creators can set them in smart contracts, they aren’t fully enforceable on-chain.

Marketplaces should honor them as most have until recently.

The marketplaces

In the Solana NFT space, almost all secondary sales take place on platforms that either reject creator royalties or make them optional.

The move came after Magic Eden made them optional after losing market share to rivals.

Meanwhile, in Ethereum, marketplaces like LooksRare, Blur, X2Y2, and Sudoswap also took a similar approach.

OpenSea always honored creator royalties, but the firm acknowledged the shift in the space.

They said that it might make creator royalties optional for traders and that exploring new enforcement models or only requiring royalties for certain projects.

Creators in the Web3 space didn’t take to the OpenSea news well.

Yuga Labs’ founders joined the cause, saying the rejection of creator royalties is a “race to the bottom” they believe OpenSea will participate in.

Reference:

Bored Ape Founders propose NFT royalties model, decry OpenSea’s stance as ‘not great’

NFT sales in 2022 hit similar heights to 2021 amid market crash

Larry Jansen on January 10, 2023

Image source: Techiia

NFT: An NFT is a digital asset representing ownership of a unique item or object.

This can be anything from a piece of art, a collectible, a video game item, or even a tweet.

NFTs are stored on a blockchain, which is a decentralized and secure digital ledger.

They have gained a lot of attention in recent years due to their ability to establish ownership and authenticity of digital items.

2021 popularity

In 2021, NFTs experienced a surge in popularity, particularly in the art world.

NFTs have been used to sell digital artworks for large sums of money, with some artists making millions of dollars from selling their NFTs.

One of the reasons for the popularity of NFTs is that they provide a way to establish ownership and authenticity of digital items.

This is particularly appealing in the art world, where digital artworks can be easily reproduced and shared online.

Another reason for the popularity of NFTs is that they can be bought and sold on online marketplaces, making it easy for people to buy and sell NFTs.

2022 market

Last year, the NFT and crypto space endured months of declining sales.

While crypto prices fell hard, overall NFT sales volume almost leveled with the 2021 peak.

According to DappRadar data, an upbeat start in the market in 2022 helped the year-end tally, making up for the weaker months that followed.

Last year, the market generated over $24.7 billion of organic trading volume across blockchain platforms and marketplaces.

It was still a slight dip from the $25.1 billion total in 2021 when the market surged, and interest as tokenized collectibles became a niche interest.

Wash trading

The data DappRadar presented excludes suspicious trades, especially those from wash trading.

Wash trading occurs when traders sell their NFTs back and forth in their controlled wallets at inflated prices.

The trading usually occurs to gain a token rewards model on marketplaces.

The data excluded billions of dollars worth of wash trading from marketplaces like LooksRare and X2Y2.

Both marketplaces offer token incentives for trading.

Trading volume

Despite trading volume staying flat throughout the year, DappRadar recorded a surge in NFTs traded last year.

The company recorded over 101 million trades throughout 2022 compared to 58.6 million in 2021.

However, NFTs were traded at lower USD values due to the fragile crypto and NFT prices.

Falling value

Throughout 2022, the crypto market lost significant value.

The losses took a heavy turn in May after Terra’s LUNA and UST collapsed.

The crypto winter was worsened by the collapse of FTX, which created a domino effect on crypto prices.

The NFT market followed a similar journey in 2022.

Sales were coming in hot in January thanks to the 2021 momentum carrying over to the new year.

OpenSea registered a record $5 billion in trading volume.

However, trading volume declined in the following months.

An April launch of Yuga Labs’ Otherside helped the market stabilize, driving OpenSea to a single-day record for the trading volume.

By then, the 2022 sales volume looked like it was going to outpace the 2021 tally.

May collapse

The spike in sales only lasted briefly as crypto prices took a steep fall in May.

As a result, NFT trading prices fell sharply, losing their momentum.

In May, monthly volume declined from almost $3.3 billion to over $1 billion in June.

Since then, the market has been unable to reach the same heights as the $1 billion mark.

Leading NFT

In 2022, the Bored Ape Yacht Club was the top-selling NFT project.

It generated nearly $1.6 billion worth of trading volume.

However, the majority of the trading occurred between January and May.

As a result, starting prices dropped from a late April peak of $429,000 worth of ETH to the recent $60,000 in November.

Closing market

The NFT market started 2022 with a bang but closed off with a whimper.

Overall trading picked up slightly in November, while NFTs sold in December rebounded after a dip.

According to DappRadar, the market produced nearly $684 million worth of organic trades last month, up from November’s adjusted total of $662 million.

Over 6.7 million NFTs were sold that month, an increase from 4.8 million in November and 6.1 million in October.

OpenSea continued to lead organic NFT trades with over $297 million worth in December.

Blur, a new rival incentivizing trades with promises of token rewards, jumped to $177 million in December from $115 million the month before.

Solana continued an inconsistent run, dropping to $70 million from November’s $95 million.

It dipped in October after nearly raking in $134 million in NFT sales.

In addition, SOL values dropped in November and December following the FTX collapse.

Reference:

NFT sales in 2022 nearly matched the 2021 boom, despite market crash

Solana starts 2023 with boost in $11 price jump

Anna Evans on January 2, 2023

Image source: CNBC

Solana: For the past year, the crypto market has been highly volatile, with some tokens spiking while others were dropping.

However, 2023 is off to a good start for Solana as its price shot up.

According to CoinGecko, in the past 24 hours, the price for Solana (SOL) went up by 12.7%.

As a result, the price bump shot the cryptocurrency to reclaim $11 following days where it traded below double digits.

Solana currently sells for $11.11 as of this writing.

Support

Last week, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin sent his support with a tweet.

“Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana,” he wrote.

“[And] now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future.”

“Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive.”

The cryptocurrency

Despite getting a boost in support, Solana’s New Year surge hasn’t canceled the battering “Ethereum killer” has taken in the past few months.

Solana is down -19.3% in the past month and -93.8% in the past year.

The cryptocurrency also lost 95% of its value since hitting an all-time high of almost $260 in November 2021.

In addition, by market cap, SOL fell from being the fifth largest cryptocurrency in November 2022.

Recently, it slipped out of the top 20.

However, Solana now sits at the 18th spot.

FTX/Alameda ties

The cryptocurrency’s recent price drops can likely trace its downfall to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

In November, the Solana Foundation released details of its financial entanglement with FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research.

While other cryptocurrencies suffered from the collapse, Solana took one of the more extensive damages due to its ties to the crypto exchange and Sam Bankman-Fried.

The Solana Foundation said it had over $1 million worth of cash or equivalent assets on FTX around November 6 before the site froze withdrawals.

The assets are currently stuck on the platform.

In addition, the Foundation said it merely amounts to less than 1% of its funds.

Other shares

The Solana Foundation also had over 3.24 million FTX Trading LTD common stock shares, 3.43 million FTT tokens, and 134.54 million SRM tokens from the decentralized exchange Project Serum.

The stash of FTT tokens was worth over $4.36 million, while the SRM tokens were worth about $29.3 million.

However, the tokens took a sharp price drop.

In addition, FTX and Alameda Research purchased over 50.5 million SOL from the Foundation, valued at around $708 million.

A significant portion of the SOL is locked in monthly unlock schedules until 2028.

Abandoning ship

Since then, several major projects have announced plans to leave the Solana ecosystem.

Last week, two top Solana NFT projects announced they were leaving the blockchain.

DeGods and y00ts’ announcement stirred the crypto community.

DeGods revealed they were migrating to Ethereum in the first quarter of 2023, while its sister project, y00ts, was moving to Polygon early this year.

As a result, DeGods’ DUST token will transfer to the respective blockchains.

Aftermath

The announcement sparked conflicting views from community members and the Solana NFT ecosystem.

Others disapproved of the decision, and some were excited to see it happen.

Ryan Wyatt, the CEO of Polygon Studios, said:

“At the beginning of the year, we noticed that much of the creator economy’s attention was focused on ETH and Solana.”

“Therefore, we decided to go against the trend and focused on the untapped potential of web3 by onboarding large enterprise brands, DeFi platforms, and gaming companies.”

“We did this successfully through ecosystem fund investments and white-glove partnership support.”

References:

Solana jumps double digits to reclaim $11

Solana Foundation details FTX, SBF financial ties as SOL struggles

Top Solana NFT projects DeGods and y00ts to leave the blockchain and ‘explore new opportunities’

Dogecoin value shoots up after Elon Musk buys Twitter

Anna Evans on November 7, 2022

Image source: Fox Business

Dogecoin is thriving better than ever after Elon Musk took over Twitter, breaking the coin from the crypto winter.

As of this writing, the meme coin is selling for $0.12.

Dogecoin rally

The meme coin enjoyed an extended rally when the world’s richest man finally bought the popular social media platform.

Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency briefly doubled in value to 14 cents.

Elon Musk’s influence on the cryptocurrency has been going on for years, but the coin eclipsed prices last seen in May.

While Musk hasn’t mentioned Dogecoin since the Twitter purchase, he has responded to Billy Markus on Twitter – one of the developers behind the meme coin.

In the past week, the meme coin’s value has grown exponentially.

The meme coin went from $8.1 billion to $16,630,929,389 (as of this writing).

Dogecoin surpassed coins like Cardano and Solana to become the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Crypto exchanges

The cryptocurrency has witnessed notable volume on major cryptocurrency exchanges in the past few days.

On Coinbase, it is currently the third most traded token, accounting for 14% of the exchange’s total trading volume.

Meanwhile, trades between stablecoin Tether and the meme coin generated $1.8 billion in the past 24 hours on Binance.

It accounts for 10% of the exchange’s total trading volume.

Meanwhile, exchanges between Dogecoin and Binance USD crossed over $900 million, representing 5% of the exchange’s total trading volume.

Coin movement

Despite the rally, Dogecoin is still down 84% from its all-time high of 73 cents on May 2021.

That day, Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live.

During his appearance, the coin took a 35% dive when he called it the future of currency and referred to it as a hustle.

Musk and Dogecoin

The rising popularity of the meme coin can be attributed to Musk’s multi-year relationship with the meme coin.

In the past, he made references to the coin in several tweets.

Musk would later add Dogecoin as a method of payment for some products and services his companies offer.

Some Tesla merchandise is available for purchase with Dogecoin on the company’s website.

Additionally, The Boring Company takes the cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its Las Vegas Loop.

In April, Elon Musk indicated plans to let Twitter users pay for Twitter Blue, the platform’s premium subscription service, with the meme coin.

The Tesla founder’s fondness for the meme coin goes as far back as 2019 when he tweeted:

“Dogecoin may be my fav [sic] cryptocurrency.”

From there, he would share memes about the coin.

However, not everyone believes Musk acted in good faith when supporting the coin.

In June, a $258 billion lawsuit hit Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla.

The lawsuit alleged that Elon Musk was pumping the coin.

Besides Dogecoin, Musk’s acquisition also influenced dog-themed coins like Shiba Inu and Dogechain, which are up 19% and 100% this week.

Reference:

Dogecoin leaps 94% in weekly gains following Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition

The news

Praise

OpenSea

Royalties

DeGods NFT

The news

Purchase buildup

The marketplace

Pokeee

Trading volume

The switch

Royalty

The proposal

Yuga Labs

The marketplaces

2021 popularity

2022 market

Wash trading

Trading volume

Falling value

May collapse

Leading NFT

Closing market

Support

The cryptocurrency

FTX/Alameda ties

Other shares

Abandoning ship

Aftermath

Dogecoin rally

Crypto exchanges

Coin movement

Musk and Dogecoin

Coin Week

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