OpenSea Sued by an Aggrieved User in a Bored Ape-Induced Lawsuit

OpenSea, the world’s largest Non-Fungible Token (NFT) trading platform has been slammed with a $1 million lawsuit by an aggrieved owner of a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT whose token was snapped up for just 0.01 ETH (approximately $26) without permission from him. The BAYC owner, identified as Timothy McKimmy is accusing OpenSea of security vulnerabilities on its platform and wants a refund of his NFT as well as $1 million in damages.

The Bored Ape was snapped up in what can be likened to a listing bug. This bug comes when users delist their collectibles and move them to other platforms, and in the process, fail to delist the NFT because of the fees that will be charged. When the NFT is moved back to OpenSea for relisting, mischievous actors tend to act on the price differentials to purchase the tokens at a discount.

McKimmy believes OpenSea is supposed to be up and doing in preserving the collections on the platform from all forms of vulnerabilities. He wants the Bored Ape #3475 NFT, which he bought for 55 ETH ($137,000) at the time, to be returned sold with damages to the tune of $1 million paid to him. His premise for this demand is that some Bored Apes NFTs with a lower rarity than his have sold upwards of 500 ETH, approximately $1.3 million.

While OpenSea has about 3 weeks to respond to the lawsuit, meeting the demands will imply buying back the NFT from the current owner as the lucky buyer reportedly flipped it for 98.9 ETH shortly after he made the acquisition.

OpenSea and Unending Woes

Despite the fact that OpenSea recently raised $300 million to improve customer experience on its platform, it is having its fair share of challenges at the moment as it was recently embroiled in a phishing scam that saw some of the platform’s users lose their NFTs to attackers.

That it is the world’s busiest NFT marketplace has placed it as the subject of a lot of criticisms lately. In its many woes, competing marketplaces like LooksRare have emerged looking to capitalize on users’ complaints to gain access to some of OpenSea’s customers.