A few days ago, some OpenSea users were shocked to learn that their NFTs were stolen; this event led to widespread panic, general distrust, and an activity drop over the last few days.
The Great OpenSea NFT Heist
On February 19 2022, millions of dollars worth of NFTs were stolen from OpenSea wallets between the hours of 5 pm and 8 pm ET, and by the end of the heist, a total of 254 tokens were stolen. After the incident occurred, the world tried to make sense of the occurrence, and OpenSea executives rushed to Twitter to explain and give specifics.
We can confirm from OpenSea that the attack was active for about 3 hours, and a total of 17 individuals were affected by the attack. After the attack, reports began to swirl around the internet, with some outlets claiming that up to $200 million worth of NFTs were stolen. OpenSea CEO Devin FInzer took to Twitter during the early hours of February 2022 to explain that the value of NFTs stolen isn’t close to the $200 million being reported.
According to Finzer, the person behind the attack had about $1.7 million on February 20 2022, and this money was generated by selling a handful of the stolen NFTs. The team at OpenSea still shares their stance that their website, listing system, or hosted banners were not hacked or a vector for the attack.
Mintable Pledges to Return Stolen NFTs
The way the NFT heist was orchestrated was simple. It may show that marketplaces and other significant stakeholders in the NFT space have a lot of work to help consumers and retail holders better protect their investments.
The hackers used fake emails to contact a plethora of potential victims. The emails convinced victims to sign digital messages with their wallets, and by signing this digital message, wallet owners did not know that they were granting the hacker a transferable license to their assets.
Mintable, an NFT marketplace, purchased a few NFTs from the Azuki project and gifted them to owners who had their Azuki Avatars stolen. Mintable’s CEO, Zach Burks had a few stern words for OpenSea; he criticized the brand’s apparent lack of care for its members. After their recent philanthropic act, Mintable has been in the news for the right reasons.
What does the Heist mean for the NFT Market?
Thanks to the sheer size of OpenSea’s operations, the announcement of theft related to their platform prompted a lot of fear and uncertainty from investors and industry spectators. According to Dapprader.com, the total trading volume of NFTs dropped sharply in the week after the heist.
The drop in trading volume has been more apparent on OpenSea as their 7-day trading volume plummeted by more than 37%. The total number of OpenSea traders also dropped by 19%, and LooksRare saw a trading volume slump of 65%. It’s not all bad news as BloctoBay, an exciting NFT marketplace, witnessed a week-on-week growth of 215%.
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