OpenSea, a non-fungible token marketplace, has refunded around $1.8 million to consumers who experienced losses as a result of uncertainty regarding a platform feature that prompted them to unknowingly sell valuable NFTs considerably below market pricing.
According to statistics given Thursday by OpenSea, one of the largest marketplaces for digital assets, it reimbursed a total of 750 Ether for 130 wallet goods. The action comes following criticism this week that it failed to adequately fix a user interface issue that allowed smart opportunists to purchase more than $1 million in NFTs at a discount.
What exactly happened?
Sellers that wish to delete their listings on NFT platforms must transmit messages through the blockchain, which necessitates the payment of transaction or “gas” costs. NFT users frequently have numerous wallets, and transferring assets to a new wallet can be a means to avoid costs.
Users who moved previously advertised NFTs to other wallets without deleting the prior listings were affected by the functionality. Attackers came in and took advantage of the chance to acquire those NFTs on the cheap at their previously published price, and then sell them at significantly higher current market rates. Assets from various collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and CyberKongz, were damaged.
The flaw highlights the extent to which the leading crypto companies’ user-experience decisions may lead to costly blunders by even their most knowledgeable consumers. Since the problem was identified on Monday, OpenSea has been aggressively reaching out to and reimbursing impacted users. On users’ accounts, the platform added a “Listings” page that allows them to see both inactive and active listings of their NFT products.
The Losses suffered
On Sunday, Robert Garcia, 39, stated he inadvertently sold his Mutant Ape NFT for 4.7 Ether (about $11,300). He transferred his NFT to a different wallet without deleting the old listing last year since he would have had to pay a gas cost, which he recalls being over $100 at the time.
Garcia stated that he wrote OpenSea immediately following the unintended sale and received a response on Thursday offering him a refund of 13.8 Ether.
By exploiting the OpenSea issue and selling at least five NFTs, three of which were from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, user ‘jpegdegenlove’ made at least 340 Ether (almost $800,000 at current rates) in a couple of hours.
