IOI
OpenSea, a non-fungible token marketplace, has refunded $1.8 million to users who lost money due to a feature on the platform that caused them to unknowingly trade valuable NFTs considerably below market value.
According to data given Thursday by OpenSea, one of the largest platforms for digital assets, it reimbursed a total of 750 Ether for 130 wallet items. The action follows accusations earlier this week that it failed to adequately fix a user interface issue that allowed savvy opportunists to buy more than $1 million worth of NFTs at a discount.
Sellers that want to remove their listings from NFT platforms must send messages through the blockchain, which necessitates the payment of transaction or “gas” fees. NFT users are likely to have numerous wallets, therefore shifting stuff to another wallet may be a strategy to avoid fees.
Users who have transferred their previously listed NFTs to other wallets without cancelling the prior listings were affected by the functionality. Attackers came in and took advantage of the opportunity to buy those NFTs for a low price at their previously published price, then sell them at significantly higher current market rates. Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and CyberKongz were among the collections affected.
The flaw highlights the extent to which the top crypto platforms’ user-experience decisions can lead to costly blunders by even the most sophisticated clients.
OpenSea says it has been aggressively reaching out and reimbursing affected users since the issue was noticed on Monday. Users’ profiles now have a “Listings” page that allows them to look at both active and inactive listings of their NFT items.
On Sunday, Robert Garcia, 39, stated he sold his Mutant Ape NFT for 4.7 Ether (about $11,300). He had moved his NFT to a different wallet without deleting the prior listing last year since he would have had to pay a gas fee, which he recalled being over $100 at the time.
Garcia claims he emailed OpenSea shortly after the unintended sale and received a response on Thursday offering him a 13.8 Ether refund.
“We would want to offer you a reimbursement in consideration for any confusion,” read the email, which was received by Bloomberg News. It stated that OpenSea is unable to cancel listings on behalf of users since it requires their signature, and it apologised for not fully describing the cancellation process.
Garcia stated he used the money from the refund to buy a new mutant NFT.
By exploiting the OpenSea problem and selling at least five NFTs, three of which were from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, user jpegdegenlove made at least 340 Ether — over $800,000 at current pricing — in a matter of hours, according to OpenSea data reviewed.
