This week’s Web 3.0 woundup features OpenSea flip-flopping over royalties, Kraken launching a fee-free NFT exchange, and NFT prices tanking after FTX screwed the pooch.
Kraken Launches Fee-free NFT Exchange
Kraken this week announced the beta launch of its NFT marketplace which will not charge a transaction fee. The exchange, the waitlist for which opened in May, will feature NFTs from Ethereum and Solana initially, and is open for testing to a select few individuals.
Interestingly, the exchange says that it will let users pay in fiat currency as well as in a number of cryptocurrencies, marking it out from the competition and potentially bridging an important gap for first time users.
OpenSea Rows Back Over Royalties
The issue of royalties on NFT sales has been a thorny issue of late, with exchanges such as Magic Eden removing compulsory royalties in favor of optional ones. The biggest of them all, OpenSea, initially launched a tool this week that would allow creators to set royalties instead of exchanges, but this idea was criticized by many in the space, including the founders of Yuga Labs, who came up with their own idea.
Following the backlash, OpenSea backed down and brought back compulsory royalties payment for all collections on the platform just three days later. Cue the usual “you spoke, we listened” bullshit.
NFT Prices Take a Hit Following FTX Affair
Despite not being related in any way, NFT prices took a hit following the FTX blowup this week. Bored Ape Yacht Club prices dropped by almost 10%, while the Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection also took a hit of 5.66%. Other popular collections such as Azuki, Decentraland, Space Doodles, and Gazers – Art Blocks Curated also registered losses as the FTX contagion spread, possibly as a result of impacted users making the most of what assets they had left.
The NFT market wasn’t hit as hard as the crypto market for obvious reasons, but the fear of further price declines across the entire sector have clearly played a part in holders’ thinking here.
