The battle for market share in the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace is heating up, as leading marketplace OpenSea announced Friday that it is temporarily eliminating its marketplace fee. OpenSea said in a tweet that for “a limited time” it will charge 0% in marketplace fees, and default all collections without on-chain royalty enforcement to optional creator royalties starting at 0.5%.
The move comes in response to popular no-fee marketplace Blur, which released its native token on Tuesday and saw its trading volume surpass OpenSea for the first time since it went live in October. OpenSea has also adjusted its blocklist of other marketplaces that don’t honor full royalty payments to creators, allowing sales on NFT marketplaces with the same policies, including Blur.
OpenSea has taken a hardline stance in the debate over creator royalties, launching a royalty enforcement tool in November that allows new collections listed on the site to delegate royalties on-chain. This tool also blocks these collections from being resold on marketplaces that don’t enforce royalties, like X2Y2 and Blur. In January, Blur reportedly found a loophole in this tool, allowing collections that enforced royalties on OpenSea to uphold their percentages on Blur.
OpenSea’s decision to temporarily eliminate its marketplace fee is a bold move that could help it regain its market share from Blur. It remains to be seen how the two marketplaces will compete in the future, but it’s clear that OpenSea is committed to ensuring that creators are able to collect full royalties on its platform.