OpenSea terminates support for BNB Chain
OpenSea has announced that it will cease support for NFT transactions on the Binance Smart Chain (BNB Chain). The company has decided to focus its resources on more promising opportunities, particularly on Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), where it faces intense competition.
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No more BNB NFTs
In a statement released yesterday, OpenSea clarified that users can still view, explore, and transfer BNB NFTs on the platform but won’t facilitate any trades. The company stated that the cost of supporting the BNB chain outweighed the benefits.
Multichain support remains a priority
Although the platform has ended support for BNB Chain, OpenSea maintains that it is still committed to a multi-chain future. As proof of this commitment, the company cited its recent deployment of Ethereum Layer 2 integrations that allow users to mint and trade NFTs on Base and Zora.
OpenSea already supports multiple other networks, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Klaytn, and Solana. However, despite OpenSea’s reassurances of its commitment to a multi-chain approach, some users on Twitter have expressed skepticism, noting that promised support for Tezos-based NFTs, announced in February 2021, has not yet materialized.
OpenSea misstep?
The leading NFT marketplace has been under scrutiny lately after canceling mandatory artist royalties.
Before, OpenSea would prevent transfers to platforms that refused to uphold ongoing creator fee payments with every transaction. However, starting at the end of August, OpenSea will lift this block, and NFT traders will no longer be required to pay artist royalties.
In a blog post explaining the changes, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer stated that the royalty model intended to empower creators with more control over their web3 business models. However, Finzer noted:
“It was meant to empower creators with greater control over their web3 business models, but it required the buy-in of everyone in the web3 ecosystem, and unfortunately that has not happened.”
The policy changes have sent shockwaves through the NFT community, with many, including representatives for Yuga Labs and Deadfelllaz, calling out for a boycott of the platform.
