A former owner of a rare Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT) is suing marketplace OpenSea for US$1 million or the token’s return after an exploit on the platform saw the NFT sold for a fraction of its market value.
See related article: OpenSea NFT marketplace hacked for 332 ETH
Fast facts
- Texas man Timothy McKimmy alleged the platform knew about a bug that allowed hackers to buy NFTs below market value in a January exploit and did not take necessary measures to address it.
- A bug allowed Bored Ape #3475 to be sold for 0.01 ETH (US$26) without the owner’s knowledge, and the alleged hacker quickly flipped the asset for 99 ETH (US$250,000), McKimmy claimed in a complaint filed with the Texas federal court.
- OpenSea refunded 750 ETH (US$1.8 million) to users who lost their NFTs in the hack, but McKimmy said he was not satisfied by his attempts to reach a direct resolution with OpenSea.
- “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,” the complaint states.
- The world’s largest NFT marketplace has recently found itself at the center of legal disputes and scams, which has led to disgruntled users migrating to competing marketplaces.
- OpenSea was hit by a phishing scam this week that targeted users in a US$1.7 million theft of NFTs from the platform, though some have since been returned.
See related article: ‘All eyes are on it:’ CryptoPunks at center of copyright legal dispute
