OpenSea and Blur are competing with the protocol’s NFT marketplace

The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace builder Origin Protocol may rebalance its tokenomics as it competes in the zero-fee royalty wars without alienating OGN token holders, who depend on the platform’s slashed fees.

Based on a governance proposal set to pass on Tuesday, the protocol will backstop its OGN staking program with ether (ETH) and OGN subsidies from its budget. In order to counter a short-term shortfall in fee revenue that usually supports Origin’s popular yield program, which currently holds 11% of all OGN tokens, the action is being taken.

This month, those utilizing Origin’s on-chain governance voted in favour of suspending the 1.25% charge on sales occurring within Origin Story’s markets for a three month period. This aims to give the protocol more competitive footing against OpenSea and Blur, which are currently locked in a zero-fee battle to win digital collectible traders over. In its effort to gain traction during this crucial time, Origin stated that reducing fees was necessary.

The fee freeze will result in a short-term reduction of platform revenues for OGN stakeholder, according to the subsidies proposal.

As of press time, Origin’s website dashboards showed that the protocol’s rewards pools for both ETH and OGN were fully depleted, indicating that OGN stakers had no tokens to withdraw.

If this proposal passes, the proposal added, “we invite the community and other team members to submit more specific proposals on how to allocate ETH and/or OGN budget.”

It appeared likely that the subsidies proposal would pass with hours left in the voting. At press time, 27 holders of Origin’s OGN tokens had voted over 1 million tokens in favor of passage, with none against. There were at least three addresses associated with employees of Origin Protocol. Their votes constituted over 50% of the total.