Ethereum NFT Royalties Plunge to Two-Year Low as Bored Ape Floor Price Drops Below 30 ETH

Crypto Market Experiences Lowest Royalty Earnings in Two Years

According to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, the royalties earned by nonfungible token (NFT) projects have hit their lowest point in two years. Data shared with Cointelegraph reveals the low point for NFT royalties, which was impacted by a recent decrease in the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and the controversy surrounding the launch of the Azuki Elementals collection.

April 2022 marked the peak of NFT royalties, with creators earning an estimated $75.7 million in royalties during a single week. Nansen’s data also shows that Yuga Labs, the creator of BAYC, has earned a total of $165.5 million in royalties from its NFT collections. RTFKT’s collections, which include CloneX, have earned a total of $79.9 million in royalties, while Azuki has earned $58.2 million from its zuki, Beanz, Elemental Beansa and Elementals collections.

Crypto Royalties

Proof, the studio behind Moonbirds, earned $35 million in revenues, while Doodles has made $27.4 million from its Doodles, Space Doodles, Genesis Box and Dooplicato collections. Pudgy Penguins’s revenue amounts to $8.3 million across its Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys and Pudgy Rods drops.

Nansen emphasizes the importance of NFT royalties as a sign of a studio’s financial base for continuous progress, given their role in generating income.

Until 2023, the NFT marketplace OpenSea was mainly responsible for distributing royalty payments to NFT projects. The report points out that this trend shifted once rival marketplace Blur implemented a policy which required a minimum of 0.5% royalties unless projects opted out or enforced full percentages.

OpenSea gave buyers the choice to pay royalties unless projects had opted out or imposed their own specific percentage:

Genesis Crypto’s data also reveals that the recent crypto collections have earned more than $345 million in royalties. Yuga Labs’ $150 million in royalties, which is 44% of the top 10, is the highest earning crypto this week. Interestingly, just 20 NFT projects have earned more than $10 million in royalties to date.