Although the current developments in the DeFi sector are marvellous, they also lead to more ways of cyber attacks than we could have imagined. The underlying optimism behind decentralisation has also made it easy for some foul-minded parasites to attack and exploit the work of others. OpenSea is an NFT marketplace that received an increased count of cyber threats in recent times. This increase in the number of threats aligning with the boom of NFT purchases is hardly a coincidence.
OpenSea’s sales have been really high ever since the beginning of the year. The record-breaking sales have also put the platform on the very front of the list. But the happiness did not last long as the platform witnessed a massive attack in the history of NFTs. A phishing attack led to the users of OpenSea losing around 250 NFTs. The attackers reportedly cashed in the NFTs through ETH valued at nearly $1.5 million. Decentraland and Bored Ape Yacht Club are some of the most valuable NFTs among the stolen tokens.
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Nevertheless, things have taken a surprising turn, and three of the stolen NFTs have been tracked and returned to their respective owners. According to the reports, Mintable, an NFT marketplace, tracked the stolen NFTs on LooksRare last Wednesday. It is not the first time LooksRare has been linked to stolen NFTs, as the platform has been accused of accommodating illicit activities numerous times before. Now, this move by Mintable solidifies the allegations against LooksRare NFT marketplace. We will have to wait to see whether it is a security bug or a criminal activity by the platform.
On the flip side, OpenSea, too, is having a hard time facilitating a secure trading environment for NFTs. Allegedly, the NFT marketplace has been having issues like phishing, plagiarism and fake NFTs since last December. However, the measures taken against such threats have not been yielding any good results. In fact, the situation seems to be worsening for the platform, with its users moving against it in court. A former NFT owner from OpenSea filed a lawsuit against the platform for $ 1 million in compensation. The lawsuit claims that OpenSea continued to operate amidst pronounced digital threats instead of closing down to address the issues.
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The bright side to this issue is the well-deserved recognition received by Mintable. The efforts taken by this NFT marketplace reinstated users’ trust in this new area. This example set by Mintable could give much-needed propulsion to move other platforms to fasten their security and to run a customer-centric business. This news has certainly helped clear the pressure built up by the series of digital threats against the NFT market. NFT enthusiasts believe that designing a “self-policing” model would be a viable solution to cement the gap created by the lack of regulators on these platforms.
