Scammers Exploit NFT Marketplace Magic Eden to Sell Fake Solana-based NFTs

05. Jan 2023 Posted by Akolkar B on News

Earlier this week on Wednesday, January 4, scammers managed to exploit popular NFT marketplace Magic Eden and managed to pass off and sell fake Solana-based NFTs on the platform.

Discussion regarding the exploit were there all across Twitter wherein users noted that Magic Eden was listing fake NFTs of popular collections such as ABC and y00ts. The scammers were easily able to pass off these NFTs as being part of the project and sell then further for hundreds of dollars worth of SOL or even more.

Magic Eden also acknowledged the situation and thanked the community for bringing it to their notice. The NFT marketplace stated that they have added more verification layers per collection in order to resolve this issue.

Pseudonymous ABC creator HGE called this a “massive exploit” and requested Magic Eden to temporarily shutdown the marketplace until the issue was completely resolved. Tweeting to Magic Eden, HGE wrote: “I know volume is important, but limit the damage first. Make sure the exploit is stopped, like really make sure of it.”

DeGods, the creator of y00ts, also tweeted: “There is currently an exploit on Magic Eden allowing for unverified NFT’s to be listed as part of the collection. You can verify if an NFT is part of the collection on our explore page linked below.If it’s not in our explorer, it’s not our NFT”.

A few hours later, Magic Eden tweeted that they had resolved the issue by fixing the fake NFTs listed on the collection pages and the transactions of fake NFTs on the activity tabs.

However, to see the right NFTs, Magic Eden has asked its users to refresh the browsers in order to make sure that they only see the verified collection. Magic Eden stated that the situation has impacted fewer than 10 collections on its platform.

The further added: “Update: Magic Eden is safe for trading. Users will not be able to buy unverified NFTs on the platform. Over the last day, the issue was contained to 25 unverified NFTs in 4 collections. We are confirming impact beyond the last 24h”.

Magic Eden further add that they have resolved the issue and would refund all those affected. Hacks on the NFT marketplaces aren’t a new thing and in the past even popular marketplaces like OpenSea have been compromised.