How to set up and get royalties from your NFT sales?

Understanding NFT Royalties

1. NFT royalties are programmable payments that creators receive each time their digital asset is resold on a secondary marketplace.

2. These payments are enforced through smart contracts deployed on blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, or Polygon.

3. Royalty percentages typically range from 2% to 10%, depending on the creator’s preference and platform support.

4. Not all marketplaces honor on-chain royalty instructions—some enforce them strictly while others ignore them entirely.

5. The ERC-2981 standard provides a universal method for declaring royalty information in Ethereum-based NFTs.

Choosing the Right Blockchain and Standard

1. Ethereum supports ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens, both compatible with ERC-2981 for standardized royalty metadata.

2. Solana uses its own royalty mechanism embedded in the metadata of NFTs minted via Metaplex programs.

3. Polygon offers low gas fees and full EVM compatibility, making it ideal for testing royalty logic before mainnet deployment.

4. Arbitrum and Optimism also support ERC-2981 but require careful verification of marketplace integration before minting.

5. Avoid blockchains without widely adopted royalty standards if consistent secondary income is a priority.

Minting with Royalty Parameters

1. When using tools like Hardhat or Remix, developers must include royaltyRecipient and royaltyBasisPoints in the contract constructor or initialization function.

2. Platforms such as Manifold Studio allow creators to define royalty wallets and percentages through a UI before deploying contracts.

3. On Zora, creators set royalties during the minting flow by specifying an address and percentage directly in the metadata form.

4. For Solana, creators use Sugar CLI or Metaplex SDK to embed royalty details into the NFT’s JSON metadata file before upload.

5. Always verify the deployed contract on Etherscan or Solscan to confirm royalty fields are correctly initialized and immutable.

Marketplace Compatibility and Enforcement

1. OpenSea v2 enforces royalties only for collections using ERC-2981 and listed on supported chains like Ethereum and Polygon.

2. Blur disables royalty enforcement by default and allows buyers to bypass payments unless the seller opts into fee-based listings.

3. Magic Eden honors Solana-based royalties defined in Metaplex metadata but does not support cross-chain enforcement.

4. LooksRare previously enforced royalties but discontinued mandatory collection fees after community backlash and declining volume.

5. X2Y2 introduced optional royalty toggles, letting users choose whether to pay during purchase—a feature that reduces guaranteed revenue streams.

Troubleshooting Common Royalty Issues

1. If royalties do not appear on sales, check whether the marketplace has disabled enforcement or deprecated support for your token standard.

2. Wallet mismatches occur when the royalty recipient address in the contract differs from the one used during minting or deployment.

3. Some contracts lock royalty settings post-deployment; upgrades require proxy patterns or new contract deployments.

4. Off-chain metadata changes—like editing JSON files after minting—will not update on-chain royalty parameters unless re-deployed.

5. Gasless minting services sometimes omit royalty configuration unless explicitly selected in advanced options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I change my royalty percentage after minting?It depends on how the smart contract was written. Immutable contracts prevent any modification. Upgradable contracts may allow updates via owner-only functions, but those require explicit design during development.

Q: Do I need a developer to set royalties?No. Platforms like Manifold, Zora, and Mintbase offer no-code interfaces where creators input wallet addresses and percentages before minting without writing code.

Q: Why did I not receive royalties from a sale on OpenSea?OpenSea may skip royalty transfers if the collection lacks ERC-2981 compliance, if the sale occurred on a non-supported chain, or if the buyer used a fee-free listing option.

Q: Are NFT royalties taxable?Yes. In most jurisdictions, royalty income is treated as ordinary income and must be reported according to local tax regulations, regardless of blockchain origin or wallet anonymity.