OpenSea, NFT marketplace, studies a phishing hack

OpenSea investigates a phishing attack that has disappeared. The chief executive said late Saturday that the attack no longer appears to be active.

Devin Finzer said on Twitter that they don’t believe it’s related to the OpenSea website. It appears 32 users have signed a malicious load from an attacker. They reported that some of their NFTs got stolen. NFTs have surged in popularity over the past several months.

Ownership of these assets is on a blockchain, a digital ledger equivalent to the networks that underpin cryptocurrencies. However, a person can’t exchange one NFT for another.

You can’t exchange one NFT for another like you would with dollars or any other type of asset. Instead, when you want to purchase something using NFT, you must first exchange it for the relevant currency. For example, if you want to buy something using NFT for Apple, Inc., you must first exchange your NFT for dollars, then use those dollars to purchase Apple shares. Similarly, if a shop owner wants to accept NFT in exchange for their products, they will first exchange their NFT for the relevant currency. Then use those funds to purchase the products they want to sell.

Overview of the phishing hack on OpenSea

Finzer talked about this event in more detail. He said that several items from stolen NFTs appeared to be back to owners’ accounts.

In a series of tweets, Finzer dispelled rumors. He said that the hacker had not made off with a large sum of money. Instead, the hacker had “sold some of the stolen NFTs for $1.7 million in ETH,” he wrote in a note.

He clearly explained that it was not worth $200 million. He also confirmed that the fact triggered its insurance policy, but its “primary goal” was to protect the users and community.