Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs says it will block trades of its new NFTs on OpenSea from February next year, to protest the NFT marketplace’s decision to stop enforcing the payment of creator royalties.
“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,” the project’s CEO Daniel Alegre said in an X post.
“Yuga believes in protecting creator royalties so creators are properly compensated for their work.”
OpenSea said Thursday that creator fees for new collections listed after August 31 would be optional, rather than required, for buyers.
Those fees – which are typically set by creators at between 2.5% and 10% – would become optional on existing collections from March next year.
The royalties are paid on secondary NFT sales and have been a lucrative revenue source for high-profile projects such as Yuga.
When asked by The Verge whether the trading ban would include Yuga’s existing and most famous collections – including Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks – a spokesperson for the project declined to comment.
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