NFT Marketplace OpenSea Blocks Iran-based Users Amid U.S. Sanctions

Some Iran-based users of the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea reported having trouble accessing the platform amid U.S. sanctions on the country.

OpenSea Geo-blocking Iran Users?

U.S.-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea is blocking Iran-based users from accessing the platform, several users on confirmed on Twitter.

Responding to an email from Decrypt, an OpenSea representative said:

“OpenSea blocks users and territories on the U.S. sanctions list from using our services—including buying, selling, or transferring NFTs on OpenSea—and our Terms of Service explicitly prohibit sanctioned users or users in sanctioned territories from using our services. We have a zero tolerance policy for the use of our services by sanctioned individuals or entities and people located in sanctioned countries. If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.”

Numerous Iran-based NFT collectors and creators have expressed their anguish at not being able to access the marketplace.

A Twitter user going by the name Nimo Leo Photos said their NFT collection is no longer visible to any user on OpenSea.

Interestingly, a moderator from the OpenSea Discord server known as RyanW, said he had no idea about the supposed geo-blocking of Iran-based users from the platform.

OpenSea in a Sea of Troubles

Despite being the undisputed leader in the global NFT market, OpenSea has continually found itself muddled in troubles.

Last year, the then product manager of OpenSea, Nate Chastain was found to be abusing his position for monetary benefits via insider trading. As a result, Nate was fired from his position after his public wallet was found to have amassed more than 18 ether through inappropriate means.

At the time, an official statement from OpenSea read:

“We are taking this very seriously and are conducting an immediate and thorough third party review of this incident so that we have a full understanding of the facts and additional steps we need to take.”

The year 2022 did not start off on a positive note for OpenSea either as the platform suffered a massive exploit from a user who managed to run away with 347 ether from owners of popular NFT collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Cyber Kongs.

The exploit wasn’t good PR for OpenSea as the user trading activity on the platform dipped as much as 37 percent. At the time, OpenSea CTO, Nadav Hollander said that user knowledge is of paramount importance to avoid phishing scams.

“Education on not sharing seed phrases or submitting unknown transactions has become more widespread in our space. However, signing off-chain messages requires equal consideration,” said Hollander.

High dissatisfaction among OpenSea users laid the grounds for the rise of a competitor and that is exactly what happened with the launch of LooksRare.

LooksRare airdropped its native LOOKS token to all active OpenSea users in a bid to attract them to the platform. At the time of writing, LooksRare commands a market cap of more than $350 million, according to data from CoinGecko.