Zora Review
MIT-licensed, itemised trading fee
of 10
Zora publishes a 1% trading fee on creator and pair coins, itemised across six recipients, with a much smaller 0.01% fee on trend coins, and licenses its protocol under MIT. Its model is trading-fee rewards rather than traditional creator royalties.
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Trading fee
1% on creator/pair coins; 0.01% on trend coins
Creator share
0.5% of the 1%
Other splits
Market 0.2%, referrals 0.24%, protocol 0.05%, Doppler 0.01%
Licence
MIT
Royalties
Trading-fee rewards model
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (8.0 + 4.0 + 10.0 + 2.0 + 3.0) ÷ 5 = 5.4.
Pros
- 1% trading fee on creator and pair coins, itemised to the recipient
- Creator receives 0.5% of that 1% — the largest single share, published
- Trend coins carry a far smaller 0.01% total trading fee
- Protocol is MIT-licensed
Cons
- The model is trading-fee rewards, not traditional enforced creator royalties
- No named audit firm is stated; the repository references only a bug bounty
- The supported chain is not stated on the fees page
A fee split down to the last recipient
Zora publishes its 1% trading fee on creator and pair coins itemised six ways — 0.5% to the creator, 0.2% market contribution, 0.2% platform referral, 0.04% trade referral, 0.05% protocol and 0.01% Doppler — with trend coins charged a total of just 0.01%. That the creator receives the single largest slice is published rather than left implicit.
A different royalty model
Zora's approach is trading-fee rewards rather than the traditional enforced-royalty model most marketplaces use, so the royalty criterion here reflects a design that is coherent but different in kind. A creator earns from trading activity rather than a set percentage of each resale.
Open source
The zora-protocol repository is MIT-licensed. No named audit firm is stated — the repository references a bug bounty programme only — which holds that score down.
Who builds it
Zora, an on-chain media platform, was created in 2020, and it is unusually blunt about its token: its own documentation states that the $ZORA token, launched in 2025 on Base, is "for fun only and does not entitle its holders to any governance rights or… equity ownership." In other words, despite having a token, Zora has no token-based governance or DAO. Understanding that the token confers no control is essential to correctly reading what Zora is and how it works.
How it compares
OKX NFT
Zero listing fees, few published numbers
Element
Royalty support stated, little else published
Blur
Zero marketplace fees, thin public documentation
LooksRare
MIT-licensed, candid about zero royalties
SuperRare
Fees and splits published in full
Rarible
MIT-licensed and ChainSecurity audited
Magic Eden
Clear fee, but coverage is narrowing
Tensor
Full royalty enforcement, clearly stated
OpenSea
MIT-licensed and Trail of Bits audited
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Zora — trading fees and splits — checked
- 2.Zora — zora-protocol (MIT licence) — checked
- 3.Zora — token documentation — checked
Frequently asked questions
What does Zora charge?
A 1% trading fee on creator and pair coins, of which the creator receives 0.5%, and a total of 0.01% on trend coins.
Does Zora pay creator royalties?
Zora uses a trading-fee rewards model rather than traditional enforced royalties: the creator receives 0.5% of the 1% trading fee.
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