OpenSea Sued For $1M Over Listing Bug Which Allowed Bored Ape Sale for $26

The beginning of 2022 turned out to be a difficult start for OpenSea.

Following the most recent incident, the market has been plagued by a string of misfortunes.

OpenSea is still entangled in a $1 million lawsuit involving a former Bored Ape Yacht owner who is suing the leading NFT marketplace for the loss of precious NFTs as a result of the recent attack.

OpenSea Under Fire

Timothy McKimmy, CEO of a Texas mining company, filed a complaint against OpenSea.

It stated that the top NFT marketplace neglected system security by allowing hackers to exploit the system and steal user assets despite acknowledging the existing system problem.

Timothy claimed that he inadvertently sold his Bored Ape NFT for only 0.01 ETH, which equated to $26 at the time of sale.

The owner claimed that Bored Ape #3475 belonged to his assets. The NFT was one of the NFTs stolen in the most recent attack, and it was sold to another bidder for 99 ETH shortly after the malicious conduct.

Timothy’s case was filed in Texas Federal Court, stating that he did not approve the sale of #3475.

Timothy also claimed that his NFT is one of the rarest, having a value greater than the first Bored Ape NFT #3001, which Justin Bieber purchased for 500 ETH. He demanded proper compensation for the loss of $1 million or the return of #3475.

It claims,

“Instead of shutting down its platform to address and rectify these security issues, Defendant continued to operate. Defendant risked the security of its users’ NFTs and digital vaults to continue collecting 2.5% of every transaction uninterrupted.”

Growing Too Fast?

The platform’s drive on business expansion has pushed it to the verge of security vulnerability.

This was not the first time the largest NFT marketplace had been accused of security flaws. OpenSea paid $1.8 million in January to compensate accounts affected by the hack.

According to Timothy, the list was probably longer, but the marketplace surreptitiously contacted the victims and offered floor-price compensation for the loss of NFTs in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.

Previously, on February 19, the crypto community was rocked by news that OpenSea had been attacked. The attacker got 254 NFTs after attacking 32 accounts.

NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht yacht club and the Azuki collection were among the stolen NFTs. At the time of the occurrence, it was estimated that the amount hacked from the stolen NFTs was roughly 641 ETH, or about $1.7 million.

It is unclear whether Timothy is required to provide additional evidence to support his allegation.

He went on to say that he had tried multiple times to contact OpenSea to resolve the issue, but had only received a response indicating that they were constantly investigating the occurrence. There were no further actions taken.

With the increased interest in NFT, the door has been opened for unwelcome intruders – crypto fraud is on the rise. Because NFT investors are among the biggest crypto exchanges, attackers will target them, and the damage will be felt beyond the cryptocurrency sector.

The experts predict that there will be more rounds of attacks on cryptocurrency businesses. Cybercriminals will also target non-fungible tokens.

According to the expert, the attack will directly target individuals of crypto businesses and exchanges using sophisticated technology, software mining, and even rogue providers.

Potential For More

Bad actors can also launch large-scale assaults using supply chain software or similar technologies.

Furthermore, there will be additional thefts of NFT assets in the coming years.

As a totally new profession, this will result in a scarcity of highly specialized investigative police, resulting in an upsurge in attacks on the NFT at first.

In the setting of a more fully fortified cyberspace, attackers take advantage of human-factored gaps such as phishing via messages, calls, auto calls, popular messaging applications, and social networks.

The trend is believed to be growing, including the development of user-related information such as images, videos, and speech.

Investors and users on NFT as well as crypto-focused platforms should be aware of the frauds in order to minimize the risk of losing their assets.