OpenSea’s Betrayal: A Fiery Requiem for the NFT “Industry”

…a raging dumpster fire

The recent move by OpenSea to drop support for creator royalties is merely the latest indicator that the so-called NFT ecosystem has devolved into nothing more than a cesspool of speculative gambling and greed. It’s also the last straw for me personally. As both a creator myself and the CEO of an NFT platform built to empower artists (not speculators), I view OpenSea’s decision as an utter betrayal of the community and the supposed values underpinning NFTs. It is now abundantly clear that the “industry” serves only to enrich a tiny cabal of insider traders and tech bros, not the artists and creators who provide the actual value.

What Happened at OpenSea

Last week, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, announced that it will stop enforcing creator royalty fees on secondary sales. This means that the original artists who minted the NFTs will no longer receive a percentage of profits when their work is resold on OpenSea.

Previously, creators could set royalty fees from 0–10% when minting new NFTs on OpenSea. The marketplace would then automatically deduct the royalty percentage during each resale and pay it to the original creator. This was a core value proposition of NFTs — allowing artists to benefit from secondary…