SuperRare Review

How SuperRare scores in NFT marketplaces

This entry rates SuperRare, the curated digital-art marketplace whose terms name SuperRare Labs Inc. as operator of superrare.com, in our NFT marketplace ranking. The terms describe the site as an interface to the SuperRare Protocol, a set of Ethereum smart contracts. The basis is desk research of SuperRare's help center, its terms of service (July 2026), the Rare Protocol core repository on GitHub and the marketplace contract's public transaction record, checked on November 1, 2026. No wallet was connected and nothing was bought or listed. The category uses five equally weighted criteria, each marked 0 to 10, as set out in our ratings methodology.

The overall score is the plain average: (9 + 8 + 8 + 4 + 2) ÷ 5 = 31 ÷ 5 = 6.2. The previous overall was 4.6.

Two marks were changed on November 1, 2026. Licence and code openness rose from 2 to 8 because SuperRare's GitHub organization publishes the Rare Protocol core contracts under the MIT licence; the earlier entry found no licence on the pages it read. Chain coverage rose from 2 to 4, the mark this category gives a documented single-chain venue, because the help center and terms state that the marketplace runs on Ethereum.

Strongest criteria: fees and royalties

Fee transparency (9)

The help center gives every split. On a first sale at 1 ETH, the buyer pays 1.03 ETH, the artist receives 0.85 ETH and the SuperRare DAO treasury receives 0.18 ETH, the 15% commission plus the 3% buyer fee. On a resale at 2 ETH, the buyer pays 2.06 ETH, the seller receives 1.8 ETH, the artist 0.2 ETH and the treasury 0.06 ETH. The help article also says which displayed prices include the buyer fee: Buy Now prices do, auction prices do not. The mark stops short of 10 because the terms let SuperRare change marketplace fees without advance notice, and the help article carries a March 2025 date.

Royalty policy (8)

A 10% royalty on every resale goes to the original artist. The terms say all secondary sales through the protocol pay it, and works minted under the current terms default to 10%. The open code supports that: SuperRare's active token contracts implement the ERC-2981 royalty standard, and the marketplace reads royalties from a royalty engine when it pays out. That is a stronger creator position than an optional royalty, and it is stated plainly. The mark is 8 rather than higher because the terms let artists change the setting in some cases without saying which.

Middle criterion: licence and code openness (8)

The superrare/core repository, last updated on November 1, 2026, contains the Solidity contracts that its README says power Rare Protocol's marketplace, minting and legacy staking. It is MIT-licensed. The README explains which contract handles what. The SuperRare Bazaar is the entry point for listings, offers and auctions, and its logic sits in separate marketplace and auction-house contracts the owner can swap. The repository's network configuration gives the Bazaar's Ethereum address as 0x6D7c44773C52D396F43c2D511B81aa168E9a7a42, and that contract's public record shows auctions being configured and bid on as of November 1, 2026. The mark stops at 8 because the deployed addresses sit in a deployment script rather than in documentation for users, and the upgradeable design means the live logic must be checked against the source.

Weakest criteria: audits and chain coverage

Verification & audits (2)

Neither the core repository nor the help pages read name an audit of the marketplace contracts. Because the Bazaar's logic can be replaced by its owner, a published audit trail for each version would matter more here than for a fixed contract. This is a missing disclosure, not a finding that the contracts are unsafe. Artist vetting by SuperRare's curation is a different kind of verification and is not scored here.

Chain coverage (4)

The help center says auctions are run and settled directly on Ethereum, and the terms describe the protocol as Ethereum contracts. The $RARE token can be bridged to Base, but the marketplace itself is documented on Ethereum alone. A single, clearly documented chain earns the same 4 as Tensor's Solana coverage. Every bid and offer pays Ethereum gas; see our explainer on how Ethereum gas works.

What the score does not cover

• Curation and art quality. Artist approval and editorial selection are not criteria.
• The $RARE token and Liquid Editions. Token-based editions and $RARE's uses are outside this rating.
• Card payments. USDC listings paid by card through a third-party processor are not assessed.
• Liquidity and execution. Sale volumes and auction outcomes were not measured.

SuperRare vs Tensor and Rarible

Tensor, at 7.2 on current marks, leads SuperRare by 1.0 point. Both score 9 on fees and 4 on chains, each documenting a single chain. Tensor is a point higher on royalties (9 against 8) and licence (9 against 8), and three higher on audits (5 against 2), because it names OtterSec and Neodyme, though their reports are available only on request. Rarible, at 7.8, leads SuperRare by 1.6 points, almost all of it on audits, where a named ChainSecurity review earns it 9 against SuperRare's 2. SuperRare leads Rarible on fees and royalties.

Who this rating suits

The score describes a marketplace that publishes every fee and enforces a 10% artist royalty in open code, but names no audit of that code. It is most useful to an artist or collector on Ethereum who wants to know exactly what each party receives on a first sale and every resale. It is less useful to anyone who needs an audited contract record or trades on other chains. The score assesses published documentation and is not a recommendation to buy any artwork.