Recent OpenSea NFT Heist Reduces the Platform’s Trading Activity by 37%

Per DappRadar, OpenSea’s 7-day trading volume is down by 37%. The report comes days after a phishing scam hit the NFT marketplace. Reportedly, the attacker made away with 254 tokens, which could be why traders are reluctant to use the platform.

OpenSea Phishing Attack Results in Lower Trading Activity

OpenSea is still suffering from the recent phishing scam attack that claimed 254 tokens from investors. The platform dismissed reports that it was a $200M hack asserting that it was only a phishing attack that existed outside their systems. Consequentially, data by DappRadar shows that the platform’s 7-day trading volume is down by 37%.

The depression of the trading volume is very steep, signifying that it may be resulting from the fear of another attack by the platform’s users. Per DappRadar, the number of OpenSea users fell in the last seven days by about 19%. The trading volume of one of its competitors, LooksRare, also plunged by about 65%. LooksRare was the exchange where three stolen tokens were sold at $667K.

Although the two NFT marketplaces have posted negative trends, the trading volume on BloctoBay rose by over 215% in the same time. Additionally, OpenSea has challenged media for covering the news on reduced trading traffic.

“There’s a huge difference between the data hosted on DappRadar, and the graphs you’re using in your story,” OpenSea said in a statement. “It’s wildly irresponsible to draw conclusions in your headline without any technical backing or comparisons to other platforms. Furthermore, the data in the text of your story does not match the graphs in your story. For more accurate and complete data, please refer to Dune Analytics.”

Investors Lose NFTS in the Opensea Attack

Per a report by crypto.news, some OpenSea users are counting losses after losing their holdings. The victims were advised by ‘official’ OpenSea emails to transfer their tokens to other wallets. The attackers took advantage of the current migration of the platform’s smart contract to trick investors.

Rumors of hacks surfaced, but the platform’s CEO dismissed them, explaining that a phishing attack caused the misfortune. He values the lost tokens at $1.7M, but researchers estimate $2M and $3M. On Monday, the platform reported that the attacker’s wallet had gone dormant over 24 hours.

The platform’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Nadav Hollander noted that the attack revealed the need for more awareness of security measures among investors. He added that investors should know more about off-chain signatures to avoid the recurrence of such an attack.

“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.

Yesterday, a report surfaced that a former BAYC NFT token owner sued OpenSea for damages incurred at the attack. Timothy McKimmy, the previous owner of Bored Ape #3475, is seeking the return of his token or damages worth $1M per his court filing of Feb. 18, 2022.

Investors can only hope developers introduce counterintuitive measures to deal with the cybercrime menace, proving to be destructive to the crypto space.