Last week, Truth Labs, the group behind Goblintown, launched Truth Labs Marketplace in partnership with Snag Solutions. Announced via a Twitter thread by Truth Labs Co-Founder Alexander Taub, the brand-specific marketplace is “a long term strategy that will take time to play out, and we’ll keep building from here.”

Truth Labs Marketplace currently hosts the company’s collections, including its first project IlluminatiNFT, Goblintown, and The 187, a collection of 187 “unique mythologies.” Currently, only NFTs that are part of these collections (and upcoming Truth collections) can be listed on the platform. 

Along with introducing “more stringent processes for reporting stolen NFTs to better align with the ethos of Web3 and decentralized technologies,” the marketplace seeks to sell NFTs with lower platform royalty fees.

Why it matters

Truth Labs Marketplace

The platform exclusively hosts Truth Labs’ collections including IlluminatiNFT, Goblintown, and The 187. Image: marketplace.truthlabs.co

Truth Labs Marketplace points to the benefits of brand or project-specific marketplaces such as greater asset transparency and control over fees and listings — something that other organizations are picking up on. Cases in point: Christie’s has launched its own NFT marketplace, while Rarible (along with Magic Eden and Snag Solution), recently offered to create a marketplace for ApeCoin DAO that will “charge no fees and require no investment by the DAO.”

What this means for NFT marketplace behemoths like OpenSea is four-fold: with the creation of specific NFT marketplaces, brands and organizations are demonstrating a serious commitment to investing in Web3 practices and creators. In the process, they’re also cultivating their own audiences, creating ready-made interest groups for specific categories like fine arts, while avoiding high transaction costs that using major platforms can incur. 

The latter, in particular, might be a game-changer for creators. Truth Labs Marketplace will charge a single, flat 5 percent royalty fee for all transactions on the platform. The original Goblintown project took a 7.5 percent royalty fee, in addition to OpenSea’s 2.5 percent of final prices on every transaction — compared to Rarible, which takes 1 percent on the buyer and seller side for each sale on the marketplace. 

Major, established NFT marketplaces may find it in their favor to shift towards creating, free, white label marketplaces in order to show their commitment to Web3 principles of decentralization and autonomy. There’s a great opportunity for fostering collaboration and pro-bono offering here, instead of scalping prices and forcing small vendors to swallow the massive up-front costs of creating separate NFT marketplaces.

What they said

We’ll need the community’s help to begin listing and using the marketplace… We hope our community, friends, and new faces can help us transform this into something special that other communities will be able to use as a template.” Alexander Taub, Co-Founder, Truth Labs

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