• OpenSea announced discontinuation of Operator Filter on August 17, 2023 in a move to protect creator royalties.
• Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Apes, are involved in a class action lawsuit currently.

World’s biggest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea just lost support from the largest digital collectibles, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre responded they are “sunsetting” their support for the decision to take down Operator Filter, a tool that platform launched last year to empower creator economy.

BAYC Creators Support Creator Royalties

OpenSea announced discontinuation of Operator Filter on August 17, 2023. The company cited lack of user participation over the initiative. The move put a restriction on secondary platform sales. However, the announcement says the creator fee is not going away.

Daniel Alegre believes in protecting creator royalties. He said that, “For as much as NFTs have been about users truly owning their digital assets, they’ve also been about empowering creators. Yuga believes in protecting creator royalties so creators are properly compensated for their work.”

Mark Cuban, owner of NBA team Dallas Mavericks, supports the move made by BAYC. He believes OpenSea is making a huge mistake by winding down the Operator Filter. Additionally, the American businessman is among the celebrities holding NFT valuables in their digital wallets.

Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Apes, are involved in a class action lawsuit currently. Plaintiffs in the case say that the defendants artificially inflated BAYC price, embellishing the collection with profitability. In the meantime, a new amendment added auction house Sotheby’s as a defendant.

OpenSea is Losing Market Share

The NFT space is seeing new players emerge at a healthy pace. OpenSea is the number one NFT platform of all-time. Blur surfaced as a herculean, dominating the sector for a year now.

According to NFTScan, an NFT explorer, Blur’s market dominance increased from 45.73% to 55.47% in a year, while OpenSea’s declined from 24.52% to 15.66% at publication time. Additionally, X2Y2 also shedded nearly 5% while LooksRare gained 3% market share during this timeline.

Blur’s zero fee structure and enabling creators to mint multiple NFTs in one go is making it unparalleled in the market. Furthermore, it took over as the second largest NFT platform in a couple of months down the line, outshining Solana-based marketplace Magic Eden.

Several artists in the creator economy are benefitting from NFTs. Budding artists can get a chance to display their creations via different marketplaces. Investment banking company Goldman Sachs believes the creator economy could approach half a Trillion dollars by 2027.

According to the data from CryptoSlam, a data aggregator, the global NFT market is down by over 40% in a month. Meanwhile, DMarket, a blockchain-based gaming metaverse marketplace, was leading the 30-day volume at the time of writing.