LONDON, Jan 25 — A flaw in the largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens , OpenSea, allowed buyers to purchase at least US$1.1 million worth of NFTs for significantly below market price, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said yesterday.
“This is not an exploit or a bug — it’s an issue that arises because of the nature of the blockchain,” an OpenSea spokesperson said in emailed comments.OpenSea said it was working on “a number of products” to address this, including a dashboard that would allow users to see and cancel their listings. It said it had reimbursed affected users.
For example, an NFT of a cartoon ape from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, Bored Ape #9991, was bought for 0.77 of the cryptocurrency ether yesterday. Usually, such NFTs fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. The NFT’s original owner, who identified themselves on Twitter as “TBALLER.eth” , tweeted their shock at the transaction, which they said they did not authorise:“I didn’t list me ape at all . Now I’m seeing DMs it sold for .77??????”
As celebrities and top brands flock to the NFT market — where sales volumes and prices of sought-after tokens have seen eye-watering growth — the OpenSea issue may give some buyers reason to pause.