In June, developers made a total of 2,000 ETH (about $3.8 million) during the peak week.
Both markets are actively working to minimize royalties paid on trades due to competition.
Collectors seem to have continued to forego paying optional royalties despite months of friction between platforms and authors over the enforcement of NFT royalty payments. Royalty payments for NFTs hit a two-year low in June, according to statistics provided by analytics platform Nansen on Wednesday.
In April of 2022, royalties were responsible for 28,000 ETH, or almost $76 million, in weekly profits for creators. Meanwhile, in June, developers made a total of 2,000 ETH (about $3.8 million) during the peak week.
Intense Competition
The development of royalty-optional marketplace Blur, as well as the policies of major platform OpenSea, have both contributed to a precipitous decrease in creative compensation.
There is now a minimum royalty charge of 0.5% that applies if a collection’s smart contract does not have an on-chain enforcement mechanism for creator revenues. However, Blur requires a minimum royalty payment of 0.5%. In both circumstances, collectors have the option of making larger payments towards creator royalties, but this doesn’t seem to happen very often.
According to Nansen analysts Javier Cerdan and Edward Wilson, due to intense competition, both markets are actively working to minimize royalties paid on trades. Despite a decrease in royalties in June, Nansen noted that certain high-profile collections had earned millions in total.
Yuga Labs, the NFT industry giant, has earned approximately $166 million in royalties throughout its collections, which as of July 4 include BAYC, MAYC, and Otherdeed for Otherside. According to Nansen, the NFT group Chiru Labs has made over $58 million in royalties from its flagship Azuki collection and derivative ventures BEANZ and Elementals.