NFT Royalty Enforcement: What Creators Should Know

When people talk about NFT royalties, it usually sounds like a simple deal: a creator mints a piece, sells it once, and then collects a percentage every time it changes hands afterward. In practice, royalty payouts are not guaranteed by the blockchain itself. They depend on which marketplace a buyer uses and whether that marketplace chooses to honor them. Understanding this distinction before you mint can save you from planning your revenue around a promise the network cannot actually enforce.

How NFT royalties are supposed to work

Most NFT collections set a royalty percentage, commonly somewhere between 2.5% and 10%, when the smart contract is created. The idea is that every time the token resells on a secondary market, that percentage of the sale price routes back to the original creator’s wallet. This has become one of the main incentives for artists to keep minting: a single sale is not the end of the earning potential, at least in theory.

The standard behind royalties: ERC-2981

Most royalty information is stored on-chain using a standard called ERC-2981. It gives a smart contract a simple function that any marketplace can call to ask, in effect, who should be paid and how much for a given sale. That part works reliably and consistently across platforms that choose to read it.

The part that catches many creators off guard is what ERC-2981 does not do. It does not force a payment to happen. NFT transfers happen through a basic transfer function that has no built in mechanism to withhold funds for a royalty. ERC-2981 is a way for a contract to declare a royalty, not a way to guarantee one gets paid. Whether a marketplace actually deducts and sends that percentage is a business decision made by the marketplace, not a rule enforced by the blockchain.

Why some marketplaces made royalties optional

This distinction became very public during 2022 and 2023. OpenSea introduced a tool called the Operator Filter, which let creators block their collections from being traded on marketplaces that skipped royalty payments. Around the same time, competing platforms such as Blur built trading experiences that did not fully enforce royalties, instead treating them as optional or reduced to a small minimum. Since a large share of NFT trading volume shifted toward platforms with optional royalties, OpenSea eventually retired its enforcement tool and moved to an optional model as well.

The outcome is that on several of the largest general purpose marketplaces today, royalty payments are something a buyer can choose to pay in full, reduce, or skip entirely at checkout, unless the platform or collection has taken specific steps to require them.

Where royalties are still consistently honored

Enforcement has not disappeared everywhere. Curated art platforms such as Foundation, SuperRare, and Rarible have generally kept full royalty payments as a core part of how they operate, since their audience is built around supporting working artists directly. Some newer contract standards, including ERC-721C, were built specifically to give creators more control over enforcement at the smart contract level rather than relying on marketplace goodwill. And the very first, primary sale of an NFT is unaffected by any of this: that payment goes to the creator regardless of secondary market policy.

What this means if you are about to mint

None of this means royalties are worthless or that setting one is pointless. It means they should be treated as a possible bonus on top of your primary sale, not as a guaranteed second income stream. A few practical takeaways:

• Price your primary mint as if it is your main source of revenue, since that payment is the one you can count on.
• If ongoing royalties matter to your plans, research whether the marketplaces your buyers actually use tend to honor them.
• Set a royalty percentage in your contract regardless, since it costs you nothing and some buyers and platforms will still respect it.
• Be transparent with collectors about how royalties work. Buyers increasingly understand this landscape, and clear communication builds more trust than vague promises of passive income.

What collectors should keep in mind

If you are buying rather than creating, it is worth knowing that choosing to pay full royalties on a resale, even when a marketplace makes it optional, is one of the more direct ways to support an artist whose work you collect. It is a small decision at checkout with a real effect on whether that creator sees anything from the trade.

If you are getting ready to mint your own collection, Simple NFT Creator lets you set up your artwork, metadata, and contract details from your phone, available on the App Store and Google Play. Knowing how royalties actually work going in helps you set expectations that match reality.