Based on a new study published by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, royalties from secondary sales on platforms like OpenSea have brought in $1.8 billion for Ethereum NFT producers.
The report’s authors, Sal Qadir and Gabe Parker of Galaxy Digital, additionally discovered that the average royalty rates for NFT producers on OpenSea, the leading global market by trade volume, have increased by twofold over the previous year, from a 3% cut of sales to 6%.
Moreover, the researchers found that royalties were concentrated among just 10 entities, which indicates that the NFT economy may be more centralised than previously imagined.
The aforementioned entities received over $500 million in royalties, or 27% of the total amount collected by Ethereum NFT royalties. The research based on data from Flipside Crypto claims that 482 NFT collections combined brought in 80% of market royalties.
Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, tops the list of companies with the highest NFT royalties collected. Valued at $4 billion, the startup has reaped just over $147 million from royalties only and has shifted its focus to creating blockchain games.
As expected from a company behind the Otherside metaverse land mint that has generated $561 million in total sales within 24 hours early 2022.
Data from Dune Analytics and the Galaxy report, which claims that OpenSea accounts up over 80% of all Ethereum NFT marketplace volume, show that OpenSea continues to account for the majority of all NFT resales despite the fact that new NFT marketplaces are still constantly emerging.
The teams behind The Sandbox, Doodles, and Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends are among the other notable NFT developers on the list, along with Proof (Moonbirds and Proof Collective), Chiru Labs (Azuki), and Chiru.
Nike was the highest earner with $91.6 million in earnings, according to a second data set that solely included legacy brands. There are other non-Nike-branded NFT products listed there from RTFKT, a digital studio that Nike bought in 2021. Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, and Adidas are among the additional names on the list.
Royalties have long been seen as a crucial component of the NFT ecosystem since they offer producers a consistent source of income to keep working on the numerous ambitions outlined in their project roadmaps.
