Royalty: what it means in crypto

Royalty

Also called: creator fee

A percentage of an NFT resale meant for the creator. A smart contract cannot force a marketplace to pay it.

Royalty in more detail

Creator fee, or royalty. A percentage meant for the creator on each resale.

Royalties are less certain than they sound. A smart contract cannot force a marketplace to pay one. For a time the marketplace OpenSea enforced them with a tool that blocked sales on marketplaces that did not. Competitors got around it. On 31 August 2023 OpenSea retired the tool and made creator fees optional for new collections.

Add up the costs. Marketplace fee, royalty and gas on the way in, and again on the way out.

FROM LESSON 53 · 4 MIN READBuying and selling NFTs: fees, royalties and fake volumeHow NFT marketplaces work, what minting and listing involve, the fees and royalties that come out of a sale, why NFTs are hard to sell, and how wash trading inflates the numbers.Read the lesson

All 128 terms · Checked against the lesson's sources on 10 October 2026.

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