The NFT market has recently been plagued by theft and fraud. However, there’s good news for the sector, as incidents of theft decreased by 30% in March. According to PeckShield, approximately 74.9% of the stolen NFTs were first sold on Blur, with another 19.5% on OpenSea.
The NFT market performed a little better in terms of security in March, with the month seeing a 30% drop in related thefts compared to February.
PeckShield tweeted that the sector saw $10.9 million worth of NFTs stolen, which is a 30% drop from February’s $16.2 million. January saw $4.4 million stolen.
Blur Marketplace Dominates Sales of Stolen NFT Assets
It also noted that half of the NFTs stolen were quickly sold on marketplaces within two hours. Approximately 74.9% of the stolen NFTs were first sold on Blur, with another 19.5% on OpenSea.
PeckShield also tweeted an image showing that Blur has increasingly become a platform on which thieves sell their NFTs. March is a particular outlier in this regard, with a major portion of stolen NFTs being sold on Blur. Previous months show slight growth, so it remains to be seen if this is a trend.
The NFT market has become a major target for hackers and bad actors, as it has grown so quickly in a short space of time. Attackers will look at all avenues to steal these assets, whether it’s phishing or compromising websites. Victims include Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which is a particularly lucrative target for attackers.
Blur Overtakes OpenSea
Perhaps the increased use by hackers of Blur to sell stolen NFTs is a result of the fact that Blur has become more popular. The platform managed 69% of monthly ETH volume last month, with OpenSea only accounting for 20% of the volume.
However, not all is well with the platform, as Blur has been accused of suspicious activity and market manipulation by CryptoSlam. Researchers from the latter state that the NFT marketplace is artificially inflating sales volumes.
NFTs Reach $4.7B in Sales in Q1 2023
While the NFT market hit $4.7 billion in sales volumes, the number of daily unique active wallets has dropped by 9.7% compared to the last quarter. The total dollar value of the assets stolen in the quarter was $373 million. This is a whopping 92.6% drop from the previous quarter’s $5 billion.
DappRadar’s report detailing these statistics offers a good picture of how the NFT market is moving. So far, it has been a bullish start to 2023 for the NFT market.
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