OpenSea Applies 0% Fees To Win Back Users

February 20, 2023

Despite OpenSea’s attempts to promote and defend creator royalties, the results didn’t go as expected.

A huge number of NFT users is slowly moving to marketplaces that don’t fully impose creator earnings, namely Blur, and others.

Because of this, OpenSea implements a model that opposes the idealized goal for the platform to win back its users.

A model that primarily centers more around collectors’ incentives rather than creator royalties.

THE ALPHA

Prominent NFT marketplace, OpenSea, recently made significant adjustments in the platform’s revenue system, which points to three cases:

  • 0% fees for a limited amount of time

  • Converting collections without on-chain enforcement to optional creator royalties

  • OpenSea’s operator filter will not block other marketplaces that impose the same policies

This became official after they formally announced its massive changes on Feb. 18 via a Twitter thread.

Because of this, many NFT investors got hyped amid the rising competition between marketplaces, as they’ll benefit much more.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE NEWS

This move from OpenSea came in after an impressive sales run from Blur, replacing the former’s top spot by having the most transactions.

According to the latest data from Nansen, Blur’s daily Ethereum trading volume surpassed OpenSea’s on February 18.

According to data from Nansen, #BLUR has overtaken OpenSea in daily NFT trading volume on Wednesday, indicating its rapid ascent in the #NFT ecosystem.

This poses a growing challenge to the dominance of OpenSea in the space

Photo Credit: Nansen & Coindesk pic.twitter.com/BujP2T7Prj

— Brickstreet Shop (@BrickstreetShop) February 17, 2023

For context, OpenSea’s trading volume has always been consistently higher than Blur’s.

But because of the recent takeover of Blur, the records have continuously alarmed OpenSea’s operations team that led them to carry out such decisions. 

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE SUDDEN TAKEOVER OF BLUR

Blur NFT marketplace released a native token – which contains several perks and benefits – the day before it overtook OpenSea.

The decision helped boost Blur’s user base that pushed the competition between them to a new level.

Altcoin update 71/100$BLUR is the native governance token of @blur_io that offers advanced features and multi-marketplace NFT comparisons.#BLUR has recently surged 150% since its launch & is now ranked 97th by MC.

Will they keep striving to ascend? pic.twitter.com/YOnbkLAt22

— Whale Coin Talk (@WhaleCoinTalk) February 18, 2023

Following Blur’s surge, the marketplace released a blog recommending creators to block NFT listings on OpenSea.

This will allow them to collect full royalties on the platform if they ever apply this option in Blur.

However, it may be problematic as it prevents creators from simultaneously gaining maximum revenues on both marketplaces.

CONCLUSION

OpenSea continues to test this model to identify the best balance between incentives and user motivations.

What do you think about this update?