OpenSea faces $1 million lawsuit over stolen Bored Ape NFTs
An owner claims it knew about a bug that allowed ape purchases far below market value.
A man who unknowingly sold his Bored Ape NFT for a pittance is suing OpenSea, claiming it knew about a flaw in its platform that allowed hackers to buy unlisted NFTs at a fraction of the market price, decrypt has reported. Timothy McKimmy alleged in a complaint that he didn't even list his Bored Ape #3475 for sale, but a hacker managed to buy it for just .01 ETH ($26) and turn around and sell it for 99 ETH ($250,000 at current prices).
The Ape is one of 10,000 limited edition Bored Ape Yacht Club primate NFTs, and supposedly in the top 14th percentile in terms of value, McKimmy said in the lawsuit. He noted that it's significantly rarer than one recently purchased by Justin Bieber for $1.3 million. Thus, he's seeking "the return of the Bored Ape... and/or damages over $1 million."
Moreover, he claims that OpenSea knew about the bug that was widely reported in the media, but refused to halt trading. "Instead of shutting down its platform to address and rectify these security issues, Defendant continued to operate," he said in the complaint.
McKimmy was a victim of the "inactive listing" exploit on OpenSea that saw multiple users lose up to $1.8 million in NFTs. OpenSea has reportedly been approaching some victims to settle, offering them a lower price than their NFT may be worth, according to decrypt.
The lawsuit may not be the last it faces over the inactive listing hack, as a law firm is reportedly soliciting complaints from other OpenSea users. The platform is also facing a separate phishing campaign that resulted in theft of NFTs, but OpenSea said that that didn't arise from any platform vulnerability.
