Yuga Labs of Bored Apes fame draws away from OpenSea over royalty fee policy

Non-fungible token issuer Yuga Labs suggested on Aug. 18 that it will discontinue support for parts of OpenSea’s trading platform.

Yuga Labs responded to an Aug. 17 announcement from OpenSea in which the latter firm said it would transition to optional creator fees.

That move will see OpenSea discontinue its Operator Filter, which allowed NFT creators to enforce creator fees and royalties by blocking transactions from parties known not to respect those fees. OpenSea said it will sunset the filter on Aug. 31, though non-Ethereum collections and collections that enabled the feature prior to Aug. 31 will be able to enforce fees until Feb. 29, 2024. Creator fees will be optional after this point.

In response to these changes, Yuga Labs said that it will soon end support for Seaport, OpenSea’s marketplace contract. Yuga Labs said that this change will affect all of its upgradeable contracts and new collections. However, it did not specifically indicate which of its NFT collections would be impacted by the change.

Yuga Labs intends for its own change to be timed with OpenSea’s transition and said that it will end support for Seaport by February 2024.

Yuga Labs is responsible for several popular NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, which is currently the most traded NFT collectible on OpenSea on a daily basis. That collection has a volume of 1,402 ETH ($2.4 million) over 24 hours. Yuga Labs is also responsible for other collections including CryptoPunks, Meebits, and several Bored Ape Yacht Club spinoffs including Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

Future availability is unclear

It is unclear whether Yuga Labs’ NFTs will remain available on OpenSea in any capacity. The company did not explicitly state that owners of its NFTs will be prevented from selling those tokens on OpenSea or any other NFT platform.

The decision does not appear to be a natural result of Operator Filter’s discontinuation. Rather, Yuga Labs seems to be opposed to OpenSea’s stance going forward. The company said that it believes in “protecting creator royalties so creators are properly compensated for their work,” implying the division is strongly felt.

Yuga Labs responded to CryptoSlate’s request for comment but was unable to provide any further details on the matter.

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