OpenSea Introduces New Stolen Items Policy to Combat NFT Theft

A Twitter user claimed to have purchased a stolen NFT and OpenSea Support advised him to sell it on another marketplace.

As asset theft remains one of the biggest headaches in the non-fungible token (NFT) space, NFT marketplace OpenSea is working to adapt its policy to incorporate additional measures against stolen items.

In an announcement, the company pointed out that its policies were developed taking into account the laws of the United States, where it is prohibited to knowingly authorize the sale of stolen goods. However, the market has admitted that in some cases buyers who unknowingly purchased stolen items were penalized even though they were not at fault. Due to this and feedback from the NFT community, the market has adjusted its policy to expand the use of police reports.

Previously, police reports were used within the platform for escalated litigation. With the new update, they will be used to confirm all reports of stolen items on the NFT platform. Without a police report within seven days, the platform will re-allow the buying and selling of the reported item to prevent false reports. Following this, the company has also made efforts to facilitate the process of reactivating the buy and sell functionality once the stolen items have been recovered.

The NFT platform also pointed out that it is working to find other solutions to tackle the problem of NFT theft at the root. According to the announcement, the company is working on automating threat and theft detection.

One Twitter user hailed the move, describing it as a good first step and encouraged other platforms to follow suit while suggesting considering the nuances of other countries' laws as well. On the other hand, some community members are still unhappy and are taking to Twitter to report their issues. A user wrote:

It's funny because when my NFT was stolen, Opensea and the NFT company that...