ERC-2981: What It Is and How It Changes NFT Royalties

When you buy an NFT, you’re not just getting a digital image—you’re entering a contract that may include payments to the original creator every time it changes hands. That’s where ERC-2981, a smart contract standard that defines how NFTs report royalty payments. Also known as NFT Royalty Standard, it’s the first widely adopted way to make sure artists get paid fairly, no matter which marketplace the NFT sells on. Before ERC-2981, every platform used its own rules. OpenSea paid royalties. LooksRare didn’t. Rarible had its own system. That chaos meant creators could lose income just because their NFT moved to a different site. ERC-2981 fixes that by putting the royalty info directly into the NFT’s smart contract—so any buyer, seller, or platform that respects the standard knows exactly how much to pay the original artist.

This standard doesn’t force anyone to pay royalties. But it gives creators a clear, machine-readable way to say: "Every sale of this NFT should send 10% to wallet address 0x...". That’s a big deal. It turns royalty terms from a polite request into a verifiable part of the token’s DNA. Marketplaces that support ERC-2981 can automatically calculate and distribute payments without needing a middleman. And for collectors, it means less guesswork—when you see an NFT with ERC-2981 metadata, you know the creator’s cut is built in, not just a suggestion.

ERC-2981 doesn’t replace other standards like ERC-721 or ERC-1155. Instead, it adds royalty logic on top of them. That’s why you’ll see it in NFTs from big collections, DeFi projects, and even meme coins with art attached. It’s not magic—it’s code. But that code is what makes the NFT economy feel more fair. If you’re a creator, using ERC-2981 means your work keeps earning, even after you sell it. If you’re a buyer, it helps you spot NFTs that actually honor their creators.

Looking at the posts below, you’ll find real-world examples of how ERC-2981 shows up in the wild—from NFTs with built-in royalties to platforms that ignore it. You’ll also see how royalty disputes affect token value, why some projects skip it entirely, and what happens when a marketplace chooses not to follow the standard. This isn’t theoretical. It’s happening right now, in every NFT trade that’s recorded on-chain.

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