Configuring Royalties on Magic Eden: EIP-2981, Solana, Enforced

Technical task: the contract must report royalties on-chain, and the marketplace must honor them. In practice, 90% of issues arise from standard incompatibility: ETH collections with EIP-2981 display correctly, Solana requires Metaplex configuration. Let's dive into each blockchain.

Royalties are the only way for a project team to earn revenue after NFT sales. But standards differ across blockchains, and marketplaces periodically change policies. We configure your collection's royalties so you receive payouts regardless of the platform.

The royalty wars of previous years shattered expectations for most NFT projects: Blur introduced optional royalties, trading volume leaked from OpenSea, and many collections lost their primary income source. Magic Eden went through several royalty policy iterations. Now the situation has stabilized, but configuration isn't a single button — it's a set of decisions at the contract and platform level.

How EIP-2981 Works

EIP-2981 adds a single function: royaltyInfo(uint256 tokenId, uint256 salePrice) returns (address receiver, uint256 royaltyAmount). The marketplace calls it before each trade, gets the receiver address and amount. This is a recommendation standard — the marketplace may ignore the response. OpenSea, Magic Eden (in enforced mode), and LooksRare honor it for compatible collections. Blur does not, unless the contract uses transfer blocking.

Implementation via OpenZeppelin takes 2–4 hours, requires ~20000 gas for deployment:

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/common/ERC2981.sol"; contract MyNFT is ERC721, ERC2981 { constructor() { // 5% royalty to team address _setDefaultRoyalty(teamAddress, 500); // 500 = 5% (basis points) } } 

For different token IDs you can set different royalties via _setTokenRoyalty. This is useful for collections with multiple tiers.

How Magic Eden Handles Royalties on Solana

On Solana the mechanics are different. Royalty is set in the NFT metadata via the seller_fee_basis_points field (0–10000, where 10000 = 100%) and the creators array with each one's share. This is part of the Metaplex Token Metadata standard. Magic Eden reads this data and pays royalties on sale through its program. Configuration takes about 3–5 hours via Sugar CLI.

EIP-2981 is implemented about 3 times faster than Metaplex setup, but the Solana approach is simpler for homogenous collections.

Example from practice: For a 10,000-item Ethereum collection we implemented EIP-2981 with 5% royalties. The deployment consumed 0.02 ETH in gas, and after verification on Magic Eden the royalties were automatically applied. The team now receives consistent revenue from secondary sales.

What Are Enforced Royalties and When Are They Needed?

Enforced royalties are the only way to technically compel royalty payment: restrict NFT transfers to approved marketplaces only. Implemented via the _beforeTokenTransfer hook with an operator allowlist. Magic Eden supports such collections through its operator filter. OpenSea launched the OperatorFilterRegistry but later abandoned it. Currently the most relevant approach is a custom allowlist in the contract.

The trade-off: strict enforcement reduces sales volume by 30–50%, but guarantees team income. Without enforcement, royalties can be zeroed out by marketplaces, as happened with Blur.

Configuration on Magic Eden

For Ethereum collections: A contract with EIP-2981 is automatically detected. In the Magic Eden Creator Hub dashboard, enter the collection address, verify ownership via signature. Royalties are displayed from the contract.

For Solana collections: Via Metaplex Sugar CLI or manual creation: set sellerFeeBasisPoints and creators at deploy time. Magic Eden verifies the collection through a request system — a verified badge is needed for full royalty display.

What's Included in Turnkey Configuration

• Audit of existing contract for EIP-2981 or Metaplex compatibility
• Implementation of royalties in contract (EIP-2981) or correction of Solana metadata
• Configuration of operator allowlist (enforced royalties) if desired
• Collection verification on Magic Eden (including request submission)
• Testing of royalty payouts on testnet (e.g., 5–10 trades)
• Documentation for royalty management
• Post-launch support for 30 days

Timeline Estimates

Configuring EIP-2981 in a new contract takes a few hours. Adding royalties to an existing contract without EIP-2981 is possible only via upgrade (if the contract is upgradeable) or deploying a new contract with migration. Collection verification on Magic Eden takes 1–3 business days on their side. We have been working with NFTs since the standard's inception and have implemented royalties for 50+ projects on Ethereum and Solana.

Contact us for a cost estimate for your collection. Order royalty configuration and get a consultation on the stack and timelines.

The EIP-2981 standard is described in the official Ethereum documentation.