The most popular marketplace for Solana NFTs – Magic Eden will not entertain creator-set royalties on non-fungible tokens sold through its platform. Magic Eden has moved to optional royalties. It would also waive its platform fees during a promotional period. This is part of its ongoing effort to win back traders.
Magic Eden emerged as the most dominant NFT marketplace on Solana. It owns 90% or more of the market share at any given time. Just nine months after its launch, Magic Eden highlighted a $1.6 billion valuation in June. The platform had raised $130 million in Series B funding. Magic Eden decided to do away with creator-set royalties after upstart marketplaces like Solanart and Hadeswap began cutting into its dominance. The Solana-based NFT platform partnered with Coral Cube last week to enable transactions with optional royalties while still keeping full creator royalties in place on Magic Eden’s own marketplace.
Tiffany Huang, Magic Eden’s Head of Marketing and Content, said the Coral Cube partnership was designed to protect the platform’s brand while serving traders. She added that Magic Eden has always been proud of being deeply creator-centric. But on Friday, the platform announced it would be following the rising trend of Solana marketplaces letting users opt out of paying royalties to artists and creators of NFT projects. The platform said it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. It knows there would be serious implications for the ecosystem.
Magic Eden said royalties, today, are not enforceable on-chain. As such, it hopes to see new standards that protect royalties.
