This week, a non-fungible token (NFT) lawsuit is brewing between the former owner of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and OpenSea, one of the most well-known NFT marketplaces. After the former Bored Ape owner was subject to an exploit on the platform that involved inactive postings, allowing hackers to ‘buy’ the Bored Ape NFT for merely 0.01 ETH, he decided to take action.
The following are what we know so far from the lawsuit’s early allegations, as well as the legal precedent that might be set in this case is decided in favor of the plaintiffs.
OpenSea Faces $1 Million Lawsuit
A Texas resident has sued to demand north of $1 million in damages or the return of his Bored Ape #3475. The plaintiff claims that OpenSea was aware of the bug on the platform that allowed the Ape to sell for 0.01 ETH, which was not listed for sale by the owner at the time it was exploited.
After the hacker obtained the Ape for 0.01 ETH, it was immediately sold for 99 ETH, or around $250K in today’s market. The Ape is certainly in the rarest top 20% of NFTs with only 10,000 issued in total, many Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have sold for more than $1 million, lending the dollar amounts in this lawsuit significant credibility.
The complaint alleges that:
“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.”
Bored Ape or otherwise, there are a lot of large NFT projects with massive dollar signs next to them, and many people have a great deal of faith in NFT marketplaces. As this is the case, this lawsuit against OpenSea might set a precedent for the future depending on how this case results. But all newly developing NFT marketplaces should be on the lookout as this might affect all of them.
The individual raising the suit has argued that he has tried to sort out the issue with OpenSea directly, with no real traction or movement happening with the marketplace. This incident wasn’t the first time OpenSea got themselves in trouble over hacking accusations, as just yesterday another attack on the popular NFT marketplace OpenSea was reported.
These latest accusations caused by the stolen Bored Ape NFT might cause all NFT marketplaces to take a closer look at how not to end up in the position OpenSea finds itself in. The lawsuit might impact all who are involved in NFTs in the future.
