Sotheby's Launches NFT Marketplace

Storied auction house Sotheby’s has launched a peer-to-peer NFT marketplace on Ethereum and Polygon. Buyers can trade NFTs using ETH or MATIC tokens, and the platform levies a 2.5% transaction fee.

Sotheby’s Metaverse is a curated platform featuring a limited selection of handpicked artists. At launch, 13 artists, including XCOPY, Tyler Hobbs, Claire Silver, Sam Spratt, and Refik Anadol, have been selected, with plans to rotate artists periodically.

Royalty Enforcement

The 279-year-old firm said the marketplace will honor creator royalties, which will be enforced using smart contracts.

“Sotheby’s commitment to honoring artist royalties comes amidst a larger debate about royalties within the NFT community and signals Sotheby’s artist-first ethos as one of the only major NFT marketplaces committed to artist resale royalties,” the company said.

Creator royalties have been a topic of hot discussion in the NFT community, with each NFT marketplace taking its own stance on the issue.

On Feb. 18, OpenSea announced that it will collect a 0.5% minimum royalty on all collections, and that marketplaces with similar enforcement will not be blocked.

Blur and OpenSea, the two biggest NFT marketplaces, have generated less than $3.5M collectively from creator royalties in the past 7 days. NFT royalties paid have dipped by more than 60% in the past three months, with royalties paying users declining by nearly 75%, according to a Dune Analytics query.

Market Capitulation

The NFT market is facing a severe downturn. Collectors have been selling their NFTs for heavy losses, and volumes across NFT marketplaces are dwindling. Interest in blue-chip NFTs has waned as their floor prices have been bleeding lower.

One of the only bright spots in the NFT is Bitcoin Ordinals, which recently hit a new milestone as inscriptions surpassed the two million mark.