The nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible has witnessed a noteworthy increase in trading volume within a 24-hour period subsequent to a public declaration endorsing the preservation of NFT creator royalties.
This development coincides with rival NFT marketplaces like OpenSea retracting their backing for royalties and royalty enforcement, which has subsequently spurred other NFT projects to reconsider their support for OpenSea.
According to data from the analytics platform DappRadar, Rarible experienced an impressive surge of almost 585% in its 24-hour fiat trading volume, surpassing $45,000 on August 23rd.
Although the numbers may seem modest in comparison to those of its competitors during the same timeframe, Rarible’s volume surge surpassed that of OpenSea and LooksRare. The latter two experienced respective drops in trading volume of approximately 19% and 74% over a 24-hour span. Conversely, X2Y2 observed an 8.8% increase in volume during that period.
Rarible’s elevation in trading volume is a result of co-founder Alex Salnikov’s declaration on August 22nd, wherein he stated that the platform “will no longer support marketplaces that neglect royalties.” Furthermore, Rarible will cease to aggregate orders from OpenSea, LooksRare, or X2Y2 starting September 30th.
“This realm is centered around reshaping the framework through which creativity is assessed and rewarded,” Salnikov expressed. “We cannot remain passive as that commitment is eroded.”
In February, OpenSea abandoned the practice of enforcing NFT creator royalties, acknowledging its loss of ground to Blur, another prominent NFT marketplace that doesn’t impose creator royalties.
On August 17, OpenSea declared its intention to discontinue its royalty enforcement tool, enabling creators to blacklist marketplaces that don’t enforce royalties, primarily due to a lack of adoption.
Concurrently, royalties accrued by Ethereum-based NFT projects reached a two-year low, as indicated by analytics firm Nansen’s data from July.