Yuga Labs will block transactions with its NFT collections on OpenSea
Yuga Labs, an opinion leader and the NFT market in general, gave an extended comment shortly after OpenSea‘s announcement of the removal of royalties for creators.
On @opensea's decision to sunset their Operator Filter. pic.twitter.com/ahc155WWkX
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) August 18, 2023
In his speech, Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs expressed his extreme concern about what is happening in the NFT market:
Yuga Labs will begin the process of sunsetting support for OpenSea’s SeaPort for all upgradable contracts and any new collections, with the aim of this being complete in February 2024 in tandem with OpenSea’s approach.
Yuga Labs has previously opposed the abolition of commissions for authors in discussions, and there is also an explanation for this: the company has earned more than $45 million in royalties from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection alone on OpenSea.
This decision by the NFT company was received very positively by the entire market and various industry influencers. For example, Dotta, CEO and co-founder of the Forgotten Runes Wizards Cult NFT project, tweeted about this:
Yuga is banning OpenSea in light of their choice to stop enforcing creator royalties
You love to see it
Like I mentioned yesterday, OpenSea taught us how to filter exchanges with bad behavior by giving us the OperatorFilter registry
Those of us that implemented it, now plan on…
— dotta (@dotta) August 18, 2023
But if you look more broadly at the market reaction to the decision from Yuga Labs, it becomes obvious that OpenSea did not see support among influential figures. Even Mark Cuban, who previously invested an impressive amount in this site, reacted negatively:
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1692541974484549925
These changes in the industry were already expected, as other competitors began to poach market share through the elimination of royalties. However, watching the reaction of the public, it becomes clear that thanks to such large-scale steps, the industry is looking for a balance in commercialization and the main principles of Web3. With an adequate and fair approach from all stakeholders, this should lead to full adaptability in a decentralized world.
