Apple’s terms impose a 30% tax on all NFT sales made through App Store apps, provoking mixed reactions from both the Web3 and Web2 communities.
Apple is requiring a 30 percent commission on all NFT trades made through apps listed in the App Store, and a recent article highlighting this policy has sparked a flurry of angry articles across the Web3 space. Apple does not accept cryptocurrency payments, nor does it provide the ability to denominate NFTs in their native cryptocurrencies, making NFT listing and trading very difficult.
There is nothing new with Apple’s 30 percent tax on App Store purchases, as it is a huge piece of its multi-billion dollar business model, albeit a controversial one. However, Apple also has a bitter history with NFT-related apps, such as having to remove Play-To-Earn (P2E) NFT games under South Korean regulatory pressure, or banning crypto wallet apps that manage NFTs. However, Apple’s customer base numbers over 1 billion users, and listing an app on the iOS App Store provides a major source of traffic for many companies and startups, which can offset the 30 percent commission with the right business models.
A recent article from The Information sparked controversy across the Web3 industry, detailing how Apple’s decision to soon permit NFT sales with its standard 30 percent sales tax presents a severe roadblock to NFT startups. While a
