LooksRare joins the lineup of NFT marketplaces that have abandoned default creator royalties but says its replacement solution is “competitive.”
Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare is the latest in a string of NFT markets to do away with enforcing creator royalties by default, following the likes of Magic Eden and X2Y2.
The platform tweeted on Oct. 27 that it would not be supporting creator royalties by default, instead choosing to share 25% of its protocol fees with NFT creators and collection owners. Buyers can still choose to pay royalties when purchasing an NFT but it will be on an opt-in basis.
Explaining the changes, it said 0.5% of its 2% protocol fee would go to collections, as long as that collection has a receiving address for the funds.
LooksRare said the willingness of buyers to pay royalties has “eroded” as a result of many NFT markets now moving to a zero-royalty model adding that these disadvantage creators by removing a source of passive income
For this reason, it says it wants to create a “competitive solution” through its fee-sharing model with creators.
That’s why we’re choosing to lead the charge in this new landscape, by creating a competitive solution that still benefits creators: diverting protocol fees directly to creators.
The reaction from the community was mixed, with some praising LooksRare for the revenue sharing model, but well-known Twitter NFT statistician, the aptly named NFTstatistics.eth, said he doesn’t see the benefit.
“The average royalty paid is around 6%” they tweeted, “I wouldn’t say that giving artists 0.5% […] is a competitive solution that benefits creators.”
“I do get that everyone is trying to survive in this race to the bottom,” he added.
Twitter’s development team announced on Oct. 27 that it’s testing “NFT Tweet Tiles” with some links to NFTs showing on the platform with a larger picture along with details of the NFT and the name of its creator.
Now testing: NFT Tweet Tiles
Some links to NFTs on @rarible, @MagicEden, @dapperlabs and @Jumptradenft will now show you a larger picture of the NFT alongside details like the title and creator. One more step in our journey to let developers impact the Tweet experience. pic.twitter.com/AkBisciB1i
Supported NFT marketplaces, for now, include Rarible, Magic Eden, Dapper Labs and Jump.trade. It comes after the platform rolled out NFT profile pictures in January, but only for its paid subscribers on Apple iOS.
The new feature could be a move to appease its most active users, as leaked internal Twitter documents show it found the topics of interest among English-speaking heavy users of the platform have shifted over the last two years, with one of the highest-growing topics now being cryptocurrencies.
There are also circulating rumors that Twitter is developing a crypto wallet, but so far, the claim hasn’t been backed by evidence nor confirmed by Twitter. Regardless, speculation abounds that it could be in the works with the takeover by crypto-friendly Elon Musk.
The top English men’s professional soccer league — the English Premier League (EPL) — is working on signing a nearly $35 million, or 30 million British pounds, NFT deal with Ethereum blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, according to Sky News.
Sorare is a fantasy soccer league trading card game where players buy, sell and trade NFTs player cards to manage a team. The team can then enter contests and earn in-game points based on the actual on-pitch performances of the corresponding players.
The EPL will hold discussions with its 20 clubs regarding the reported multi-year contract on Oct. 28. The deal will allegedly focus on static images of EPL players assigned to NFTs, which of course, will allow fans to buy, own and likely trade them.
In March, it was reported that the EPL tapped blockchain firm ConsenSys for an NFT deal allegedly valued upward of $300 million. Still, Sky News reports that a slide in NFT prices had ConsenSys renegotiating to lower the price of the agreement, which made Sorare’s offer more attractive to the league.
A separate deal between the EPL and blockchain developer Dapper Labs is reportedly also under discussion.
The new NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur hit a record high of 1,610 Ether (ETH), around $2.5 million, in 24-hour trading volume on Oct. 26, according to Dune analytics, placing it only behind the largest marketplace, OpenSea.
It topped its rivals LooksRare and X2Y2 in terms of market share on the day, taking to Twitter to celebrate the milestone.
In the last 24 hours Blur became the #2 NFT marketplace by volume (excluding wash trades)! Blur is also the #1 aggregator.
This is a huge win for the entire Blur community who will eventually be majority owners of Blur. It’s only day 7 and we’re just getting started! pic.twitter.com/YpvywTdU5H
The Ethereum-based platform launched a beta version on Oct. 19 with an airdrop of its native token BLUR to anyone who had traded NFTs in the last six months. It says it targets “pro traders” and offers no trading fees and optional royalties.
Related: TV streaming providers should start relying on NFTs
On the same day, NFT marketplace X2Y2 tweeted that it would like Blur “to stop using our listings on your website” and subsequently blocked Blur from its platform, claiming it violated X2Y2’s terms by using multiple application programming interface (API) keys.
NFT marketplace myNFT will showcase its first-ever physical NFT vending machine at the NFT.London event slated for Nov. 2–4. It will allow eventgoers to buy an NFT by purchasing a displayed envelope, scanning a code to create a myNFT account and receiving the NFT in their newly created wallet.
Monkey Drainer, the pseudonym of an alleged phishing scammer, has reportedly stolen $1 million worth of ETH so far this week through creating copycat NFT minting websites, and its possible the scams may have stolen over $3.5 million in total so far.
