Creator royalties have dropped substantially in the Solana NFT sector recently, as top marketplace Magic Eden made paying them optional last week after rivals that shied away from royalties snatched away market share. Now Metaplex, the maker of Solana’s NFT standard, says it is developing a new standard that could enforce royalty payments across the board. While artists and creators can set royalty rates through project smart contracts.
The firm said that the existing Metaplex standard is used by more than 99% of all Solana NFTs created so far. Metaplex said it can create enforceable royalties by expanding its token metadata program, which is how NFT makers add the data and information that makes an NFT—or blockchain token representing ownership in an item—unique from one another.