OpenSea in troubled waters

The lawsuits are racking up for the NFT marketplace. 

Pile ‘em high 

Despite substantial efforts to close off its platform to scammers within the NFT community, OpenSea is facing a growing number of lawsuits over its poor security. And, as if the reputational damage wasn’t bad enough, the suits could cost the platform millions.  

But it’s not just simple scams that are thriving on OpenSea. The latest case relates to bugs in the system’s code. The claimant states that bugs led to him losing his Ape tokens, and, even worse, he alleges that OpenSea was well aware of the bugs and had simply glossed over them. 

The tip of the iceberg 

The NFT space has grown rapidly over an extremely short period of time. And while lots of people continue to navigate the NFT space safely, the rapid growth has not always come with an equally rapid scaling up of safety systems. It might be OpenSea in the firing line this time, but the lessons of the ongoing court cases will need to be learnt very quickly by other NFT platforms. 

Researchers haven’t struggled to find loopholes in OpenSea’s security. And while the platform has done its utmost to compensate buyers and restrict trading on stolen NFTs, if even one court case finds OpenSea responsible then it will have ramifications for the entire community. Every new sector needs a sacrificial lamb to learn from, and OpenSea could be on the chopping block.