LooksRare Removes Royalties, Offers Alternatives
NFT Marketplace LooksRare has announced it is getting rid of creator royalties by default and will instead share 25 percent of its protocol fees, in a tweet from this morning.
Buyers will still have the option to opt-in to pay the creator royalties at the time of NFT purchase.
Other notable changes from today's announcement include:
- Trading Rewards: 95 percent to sellers, 5 percent to buyers
- Listing Rewards: Ranked by OpenSea rolling 24-hour volume
- Protocol Fees: Still 2 percent but now 1.5 percent go to $LOOKS stakers and 0.5 percent to creators and collection owners
Traders with existing listings are impacted as they will face a 2.5 percent fee (2 percent protocol + 0.5 percent to creators), though royalties will be removed at the time of sale. They are also free to cancel and relist to switch to the updated 2 percent model.
The LooksRare team touted this change as one addressing the race to zero-royalty marketplaces, where they intend to "lead the charge" while "creating a competitive solution that still benefits creators." They elaborate in a blog post on their site, stating they are not taking a stand on the royalty argument but taking action to address the reality they are facing in the market.
Early community feedback has applauded LooksRare for taking a hit on their own bottom line, while others are not happy with the progress to a zero-royalty model.
This announcement comes at a contentious time for marketplaces, as other competitors X2Y2 and Magic Eden have made major royalty announcements in the past few weeks, to the chagrin of their user base. Meanwhile, OpenSea still commands the lion's share of marketplace volume, capturing over 60 percent of sales volume.
