OpenSea Reportedly Blocks Rihanna Song NFT

If you’re like millions of people around the world, then you probably tuned in to watch pop star Rihanna’s Superbowl 2023 performance live or online after the fact. The singer belted out some of her career-defining hits including the 2015 track ‘B*tch Better Have my Money’. 

Unfortunately for those who bought the NFTs that offered fractional royalties of the song and hoped to benefit from the performance, this was not to be so. This comes as OpenSea reportedly halted trading of the NFTs and delisted them without first informing the team behind them. 

Rihanna NFTs in Trouble?

When it was first announced last that NFTs would be released based on the song, many rejoiced. NFTs based on songs have become more commonplace and one based on such a memorable song that was about to be performed on the biggest stage in the world seemed like a sure bet. And while streams of the song increased following the performance, NFT holders found themselves out of luck. 

This came as AnotherBlock (which was partially behind the project) CEO Michel “bigmich” Traore said on its Discord page that users could not sell their NFTs on OpenSea as the sell features had been disabled. Later on, another member of staff said that OpenSea had delisted the collection without any prior communication. 

For days, there was speculation among buyers about what could have caused this until AnotherBlock’s Head of Community & Growth Andreas “bigleton” Bigert reposted a message that had been sent by OpenSea. The message said that the collection was delisted because OpenSea does not allow for any collections that promise fractional ownership of another asset and future profits based on this ownership. 

Bigert, however, has pushed back against this claim, noting that other NFTs with the same features have been traded on OpenSea without any issue. 

“We have also brought up why similar collections (Royal.io and Corite for instance) are still tradable on their platform in our communication without getting any comment on that either,” he said, with both collections also offering fractional ownership of a piece of music publishing. 

Despite this, all hope does not seem to be lost. While OpenSea insists on banning the NFTs Blur’s marketplace is noted as still being an option, though some speculate that the action taken by OpenSea might go on to affect its price floor. 

This is left to be seen, however. After all, ‘B*tch Better Have my Money’ is one of Rihanna’s most enduring hits and has returned to public consciousness through the Superbowl performance. Needless to say, these NFTs will be valuable for a long while to come given that they offer a portion of the royalties. While it might be more convenient to buy them on OpenSea, a keen investor or Rihanna fan will not likely be deterred by having to buy them elsewhere. 

OpenSea has not released a public statement about the NFTs but seeing as more artists will likely follow this trend, the marketplace will have to address this policy eventually.