Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea said over the weekend that it is investigating a phishing attack that no longer appears to be active.
“It appears 32 users have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen,” OpenSea said on Twitter.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are often compared to digital art, have surged in popularity over the past year and OpenSea is one of the largest marketplaces for the collectibles.
Ownership of NFTs is recorded on a blockchain — a digital ledger similar to the networks that underpin Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.
Unlike most currencies, a person can’t exchange one NFT for another as they would with dollars or other assets. Each NFT is unique and acts as a collector’s item that can’t be duplicated, making them rare by design.
Some of the stolen NFTs have been returned to their owners, said OpenSea.
In a series of Tweets issued over the weekend, OpenSea disputed reports that the hack was worth $200 million U.S. The company said the suspected hacker appears to have “$1.7 million of Ethereum (ETH) in his wallet from selling some of the stolen NFTs.”
OpenSea said it is working to recover all the stolen NFTs.
