NFT marketplace OpenSea said it is making some “big changes” as competition from its rivals heats up.
In a tweet on Friday, OpenSea said it would drop its marketplace fee to 0% for a limited period of time. It also plans to move to a 0.5% creator royalties model, with an option for sellers to pay more.
We’re making some big changes today:
1) OpenSea fee → 0% for a limited time
2) Moving to optional creator earnings (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new)
3) Marketplaces with the same policies will not be blocked by the operator filter— OpenSea (@opensea) February 17, 2023
The NFT marketplace, that until recently has dominated the space, cited a “massive shift” in the ecosystem for non-fungible tokens.
“In October, we started to see meaningful volume and users move to NFT marketplaces that don’t fully enforce creator earnings. Today, that shift has accelerated dramatically despite our best efforts,” said OpenSea.
Despite its best efforts to protect creator earnings, the marketplace said that 80% of the NFT ecosystem does not pay these royalties and the majority of volume has moved to a zero fee environment.
As part of its new set of policies, OpenSea also plans to adjust the list of other NFT marketplaces on its “operator filter.” This filter used to block marketplaces that did not honor full royalty payments, but it will now allow sales using marketplaces with the same policies. This includes its rival Blur, which has amassed a significant amount of OpenSea’s user base, and last week surpassed OpenSea’s trading volume for the first time since its launch.
“Now, creators won’t have to make the false choice between receiving earnings on OpenSea or Blur,” said OpenSea.
On Jan. 30, Blur found a way to bypass OpenSea’s blocklist, which made all collections accessible for trades on its own platform.
BREAKING: Blur just made a game-changing move to bypass OpenSea's blocklist control
As stated in airdrop announcement, Blur is trying new things for an unprecedented launch.
Here's how they did it & the impact their move will have on the NFT market, esp. for creators&traders👇 pic.twitter.com/19aLLMRfKg
— Panda Jackson (@pandajackson42) January 30, 2023
Blur’s activity has picked up even more after the airdrop of its BLUR token, with the first wave of token allotments distributed exclusively to users who switched over to Blur’s platform from rival marketplaces.
Activity from this airdrop also led to $4 million worth of ETH burned over the span of one week, Decrypt reported on Saturday.
