OpenSea Looks To Improve Customer Support and Fight Fraud

The NFT marketplace will partner with Web3 communications platform Metalink in an effort to mitigate theft

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Scammers allegedly impersonated OpenSea staff to steal funds from NFT holders
  • Last month, opportunists exploited OpenSea’s platform for over $1 million due to a user interface issue on its platform, according to Elliptic

OpenSea is launching a customer service server with Web3 communications platform Metalink in an effort to mitigate risk of fraudsters pretending to be members of the company’s staff. Alleged scammers have previously impersonated the marketplace’s employees to deceive NFT owners in OpenSea’s Discord, scamming them out of millions of dollars.

“OpenSea will be partnering with Metalink as we seek to engage more deeply with the NFT ecosystem,” Stevey Tromberg, OpenSea’s head of community, said in a statement. “Our goal is to create a direct channel for you to interact with OpenSea to get support, offer feedback, receive updates, and to share any other information that will help us better serve you.”

The company hopes to mitigate user risk via Metalink, which operates a “token gated” platform so that only users that own certain NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will have access.

Once users connect their cryptocurrency wallets to the platform, Metalink said, they’ll be connected with an “authenticated” customer support staff from OpenSea. There will be three official channels for OpenSea on Metalink, which include support, announcements and user feedback.

For the time being, Metalink said, these services can be utilized by certain holders, including owners of popular collections such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, World of Women, Doodles and Cool Cats.

“This is one of many initiatives planned to expand the reach and effectiveness of our customer support reach, beyond just Discord,” Tromberg said. The new channels will have “dedicated community support staff from OpenSea spending a few hours a day in Metalink, all of whom will be marked as verified OpenSea staff.”

The announcement from OpenSea follows reports of users having their digital collectibles snatched up and resold at far below market value on the platform.

A spokesperson for OpenSea told Blockworks in a Jan. 25 statement that the company has since refunded 130 wallets of affected users, totaling 750 ether ($2.31 million as of Wednesday noon ET).

The loophole was not a bug or an exploit, according to the spokesperson, but rather a user interface issue that occurs when a user creates a listing then transfers the NFT to a different crypto wallet.

The leading NFT marketplace also faces a new competitive challenge from LooksRare, which hopes to lure OpenSea users by rewarding NFT traders with the new platform’s governance token, as well as a cut of the ether from each trade.

OpenSea did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Apple are slated to report Q1 earnings this week, and we’re watching one especially closely

article-image

Tariff concerns on corporate earnings and weakening of the US dollar contributed to the surge, CoinShares exec says

article-image

Following a developer call Monday, EOF appears to be out of Fusaka fork

article-image

Ragnarok: Monster World says it upheld all “contractual obligations.”

article-image

Satoshi Disappear Day celebrates Bitcoin’s success without its creator

article-image

Sponsored

peaq was designed to meet the needs of DePINs, offering native features for identity, machine coordination, and real-world data validation