New research from crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital shows that non-fungible token (NFT) creators on Ethereum (ETH) have received nearly $2 billion in royalties.
In a recent blog post, Galaxy Digital finds that over $1.8 billion worth of royalties have been paid out to NFT producers on ETH while creators on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, have seen their royalty figures double since last year.
“Over $1.8 billion worth of royalties have been paid out to creators of Ethereum-based NFT collections. In addition, the average royalty percentage paid out to creators on OpenSea, the platform that has paid out the most royalties to creators by far, has doubled from 3% to 6% over the past year.”
The crypto firm also finds that a small number of NFT collections account for the majority of all NFT royalties earned so far.
“Major brands in NFTs, across both legacy players and crypto-native organizations, have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in income from royalties generated on secondary sales. In fact, just 10 entities accounted [for] 27% of all royalties earned and 482 NFT collections accounted for 80% of all royalties earned thus far.”
According to the report, there’s been an ongoing debate on whether NFT royalties should exist. Proponents argue that content creators should be reimbursed for their works becoming more popular over time while those who oppose them argue that the enforcement of royalties would change how NFTs fundamentally work.
The research cites Solana (SOL) co-creator Anatoly Yakovenko, who previously said that the enforcement of royalties would split ownership of digital collectibles between users and NFT creators. According to Yakovenko, creators would be able to use smart contracts to repossess NFTs in case users don’t pay royalties.
“To implement [NFTs] directly in the tech, the concept of ‘ownership’ needs to change. The NFT isn’t completely owned by the user or the creator. The creator must retain certain rights to effectively enforce royalties.“
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