Rarible, a well-known NFT marketplace, saw a significant increase in its trading activity in just a time span of one day. This happened after the platform firmly promised to protect the royalties of NFT creators.
The move comes in the wake of competing NFT marketplaces like OpenSea retracting their support for royalties and their enforcement. This shift has prompted several other NFT ventures like Yuga Labs to reconsider their association with OpenSea.
Data provided by DappRadar’s analytics platform reveals a staggering 585% increase in Rarible’s fiat trading volume over a 24-hour period, ascending to over $45,000 on August 23.
While these figures might appear modest when compared to industry competitors during the same timeframe, Rarible’s surge in volume outpaced OpenSea and LooksRare, which encountered respective drops of approximately 19% and 74% in their trading volumes over the same duration. On the other hand, X2Y2 observed a modest volume uptick of 8.8%.
The increase in Rarible’s trading recently happened because of what the co-founder, Alex Salnikov, said on August 22nd. He talked about how Rarible won’t support places that don’t pay creators fairly or that neglect royalties. And by September 30th, Rarible will stop combining orders from OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2.
Salnikov underscored the significance of the NFT space in redefining the valuation and compensation of creativity. He expressed his concern, stating, “We cannot continue to standby as that promise is taken away.”
In February, OpenSea made a significant decision to halt the enforcement of NFT creator royalties, acknowledging its position had weakened to competitors like Blur, another prominent NFT marketplace that does not enforce such royalties. On August 17, OpenSea further announced the discontinuation of its royalty enforcement tool, allowing creators to exclude non-royalty enforcing marketplaces from their listings due to limited adoption.
Meanwhile, Nansen’s analytics firm reported that royalties earned from Ethereum-based NFT projects have hit a two-year low, based on data from July.
What’s Next?
Rarible’s bold stance in safeguarding NFT creator royalties has not only sparked a surge in its trading volume but has also ignited a broader industry discussion about the role of royalties in the NFT landscape. As the NFT market continues to evolve, platforms like Rarible are determined to champion the rights of creators and reshape the prevailing paradigms of creative compensation.
