Apple Eases NFT, Crypto Rules for iOS Apps Following Antitrust Ruling

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In brief

Apple has made changes to iOS app developer guidelines following a court ruling this week.
Developers can now freely offer external payments methods, as well as enable purchases of NFTs from secondary marketplaces.
Some cryptocurrency-related restrictions still apply to iPhone and iPad apps.

Fortnite maker Epic Games’ antitrust case against Apple benefited the crypto industry on Thursday, when the iPhone maker loosened restrictions on developers’ ability to offer apps in the U.S. that direct users to non-standard purchasing methods or digital collectibles.

Apple updated its iOS App Store review guidelines after a U.S. District Judge found this week that the tech titan “willfully” violated a court injunction issued in 2021. Moving forward, the federal court prohibited Apple from collecting fees on purchases made outside of its iOS apps (currently 27%) or limiting developers’ ability to direct users to third-party websites.

In an email obtained by Decrypt, Apple notified iOS developers that “apps on the United States storefront are [no longer] prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.”

“The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront,” the email added.

Although the loosened restrictions do not apply to in-app features, such as buying premium content or in-game boosts, they may lead to a “generational golden consumer crypto bull run,” Wojciech Kulikowski, a software engineer at Farcaster, wrote on the decentralized media protocol.

“This will allow for more experimentation with crypto-native mobile apps that were previously often blocked from Apple [iOS] App Store,” he told Decrypt.

In practice, NFT marketplaces like OpenSea have limited functionality through their iOS apps. Users are able to browse a panoply of NFT collections, but they can not purchase them.

Some companies, including Magic Eden, have released digital wallets that allow users to make in-app purchases using a browser embedded in their application. The feature mirrors self-custodial wallets offered by firms like MetaMask, Coinbase, and Uniswap.

Apple’s iOS App Store review guidelines still include strict restrictions when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Crypto apps cannot offer currency for completing tasks, facilitate initial coin offerings, also known as ICOs, or leverage users’ devices to mine digital assets.

Google updated its Google Play Store policies in 2023, allowing NFTs to unlock in-app content regardless of where they were purchased. Apple’s chief rival in the mobile space also required game developers to disclose whether their experiences were blockchain-based, similar to the Epic Games’ platform.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

Edited by Andrew Hayward