Quick take:
- Half of stolen NFTs are sold within three hours according to a new report by web3 fraud detection tool PeckShield.
- The report also indicates that stolen NFTs are sold on leading NFT marketplaces Blur and OpenSea.
- The value of stolen NFTs fell to $2.27 million in June, down from $2.95 million in the previous month.
The non-fungible token (NFT) market may be passing through a bearish period but that has not prevented malicious actors from stealing NFTs from unsuspecting collectors. Even more interesting, is the speed at which, thieves are able to cash out stolen assets, reducing the chances of recovering the stolen assets.
A new report by NFT fraud detection tool PeckShield, which provides alerts to users via a web extension, found that half of the stolen NFTs are sold within 160 minutes. The report also states that most of the stolen NFTs are cashed out in the leading NFT marketplaces Blur and OpenSea. Both platforms accounted for 99.7% of stolen NFTs with Blur handling 86% and OpenSea 13.76%, the report showed.
Another key finding in the report was that June posted the lowest Monthly dollar amount for stolen NFTs with $2.27 million, down from the $2.95 million reported in May.
Overall, nearly $40 million worth of NFTs have been stolen during the first half of 2023. Based on the declining numbers, the second half of the year could be poised for a better experience.
That could be partly due to the increased awareness in the community and the availability of more fraud detection tools.
However, that does not mean it is time to relax and unwind. There is one way of making sure your NFTs are secure according to Axenia Shliakhtina, Marketing Lead at the largest NFT marketplace on TON, Getgems.
“One of the most secure ways to keep your NFTs safe is by storing them in a hardware wallet. This way, NFTs are stored offline and you don’t need to worry about exploits and fraudsters. This isn’t always the most accessible way to store your digital collectibles, and that’s why many NFT enthusiasts revert to online storage, either in non-custodial wallets like Tonkeeper or custodial wallets.”
“Innovations such as MetaMask’s ledger extension are looking to bridge the two options, bringing the security benefits of offline storage together with the accessibility and agility that online solutions offer. If a Metamask user clicks on a phishing link he or she will have to also approve access from the hardware ledger device, providing a fail-safe mechanism of sorts to guard against unwittingly approving access to NFTs to a nefarious user,” added Shliakhtina.
Shliakhtina also says users can improve the security of their assets by separating assets, in which case, assets of a higher value that the collectors want to hold long-term are stored in a different wallet to those that are likely to be cashed out if an opportunity arises.
“For instance when you are participating in gamified NFT activities like the ones held on Getgems.io, access it with the wallet where you store multiple tokens such as lottery tickets or breedable NFTs,” she said.
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