Solana NFT Marketplace Magic Eden to make royalties optional

Artists reject the latest in a series of controversial moves by NFT Marketplaces

In a controversial move announced Friday, Magic Eden, the largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens on Solana, said it would make artist royalty payments optional.

Many artists were drawn into the NFT space because of the opportunity to earn royalty payments on secondary sales. But the feature, which is supposed to be mandatory, is easily bypassed. And some marketplaces have left it up to buyers to decide whether to pay creators in an effort to gain market share from competitors.

However, the move has proved controversial. Earlier this year, X2Y2, an NFT marketplace on Ethereum, said it would let users decide whether or not to pay royalties. The pushback was severe, and the platform was forced to partially reverse the decision several days later.

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Artists Say NFT Markets Is Betraying Web3 By Nixing Royalty Payments

X2Y2’s move to make royalties optional sparks outcry and soul-searching in NFT Land

– This is not a decision we take lightly. We understand that this move has serious implications for the ecosystem, says Magic Eden so on Twitter. “We also hope that it is not a permanent decision. Today, royalties cannot be enforced on the chain. We welcome and hope to see new standards that protect royalties.”

To that end, the platform will host a hackathon “to develop pro-royalty and alternative creator income tools.”

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In September, Solana NFT sales hit all-time highs, with Magic Eden controlling more than 90% of the market, according to data from analytics platform Nansen. Magic Eden recently debuted on Ethereum, where NFT sales are still dominated by OpenSea.

Fees waived

Magic Eden also announced that it will temporarily drop out the fee it collects on each NFT sale, although the decision did little to reassure artists using the platform.

“This is by far the worst decision you could have made, Code Monkey, the pseudonymous founder of the nodemonkey NFT collection, tweeted.

“Creators/founders stick by you through thick and thin. This will send projects to zero and prevent new project growth. Consider building a method to enforce royalties instead of giving in.”