OpenSea Blacklists High-Value Collectibles, Draws Flak From Twitter Users

OpenSea, the world's largest marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), has blacklisted a slew of high-value collectibles, deeming them non-tradeable in the platform. But it looks like the team is getting flak for flagging NFTs as a way to protect its users.

OpenSea houses 10,325 NFT collections based on the research conducted by Meta Generation in March. With the myriad NFTs available on the marketplace, the team flagged collections worth 24,000 ETH or approximately $27 million (based on the floor price of the NFTS) and marked them suspicious or stolen, according to Dune Analytics.

The blacklisted collectibles include token IDs and transactions of major NFTs in the industry, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Moonbirds, CloneX and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC). Platforms like OpenSea make it a point to blacklist a particular asset on its site to protect users from trading a collectible after it was reported as a stolen NFT.

Based on the data from Dune Analytics, 1.5% of the total supply of the NFT collectible Azuki was frozen by the platform. The platform also froze 70 Moonbirds NFT despite the collectible being just ten weeks old.

Mutant Ape yacht Club (MAYC) topped the list of most blacklisted collectibles with 268 NFTs marked as stolen or suspicious, followed by CloneX with 202 NFTS, Azuki with 153, BAYC with 130, BAKC with 87 and Moonbirds with 70. "Stolen count is much higher as many stolen assets are returned or never frozen," said Dune Analytics and added, "the NFT space undeniably has a major scam problem that must improve with more adoption."

But while OpenSea is trying to combat NFT theft with this measure, some users criticize this for what they claim as a lack of due diligence on the part of the platform. Critics demand that OpenSea show transparency, notably when it marks an NFT as stolen or suspicious.

For instance, a Twitter user who goes by the name Jennifer19375 complained about this particular OpenSea feature. The supposed owner of a CloneX NFT said the marketplace flagged their NFT despite the absence of "suspicious trading or transfers on the item at all."

Witter handle miggymelo responded to the tweet, saying, "Good luck with that. Been trying to get my item unflagged for a month now (the person who got their NFT stolen is willing to help me out) and no luck yet. Other users echoed the same concern, with another user sharing that they have "repeatedly asked the marketplace to "provide any evidence the item I bought was stolen. It was flagged by an anon wallet that only ever held 2 NFTs, 2 weeks after I bought it, which I thought was bad. 88 days is insane."