Report: 50% of NFT Holders Have Lost Access to Their NFTs

Security concerns, however, didn’t seem to slow the growth of the booming industry, which reached $17.7 billion in sales last year

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share
  • MetaMask, Trust Wallet and Math Wallet are the most commonly used wallets
  • 16% of respondents said their accounts on NFT platforms had been previously hacked

From multi-million dollar rugpulls to user exploits on marketplaces, investing in NFTs can be fraught with risk. 

New York gallery owner Todd Kramer, for example, had $2.2 million of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) stolen in January through a phishing scam.

Half of NFT owners have lost access to at least one of their digital collectibles before, according to a March 8 report by research firm PrivacyHQ.

The study, which polled over one thousand collectors, showed two out of three NFT investors “panic sold” one of their blockchain-based collectibles last year. 

Justin Kan, co-founder of NFT gaming marketplace Fractal and streaming platform Twitch, told Blockworks users should follow precautions to safeguard their assets.

“There [are] a high level of rugpulls and scams [in NFTs],” Kan said. “[But] hopefully as the space matures, companies will be able to provide protocols that will be able to [offer] this kind of security for their users.” 

“You should have a burner wallet when you’re minting, have a cold wallet for storage of your NFTs, and you should be aware of phishing attacks.”

Per the survey, 16% of respondents said their NFT platforms had been hacked, but roughly 90% said they were able to recoup losses in some capacity. 

MetaMask, Trust Wallet and MathWallet are the most popular NFT wallets — with MetaMask believed to be the safest.

“Don’t [click on] links,” Kan said. “We [recommend] typing out Fractal.is in your browser. Now, people in Web2 are going to [say], ‘That’s insane that you have to do all these protections.’ But I think it’s the cost of having true ownership of [something.] You kind of have to rebuild the space from the ground up.”

Security concerns, however, didn’t seem to slow the exponential growth of the industry last year. NFT sales reached $17.7 billion in 2021, up from $82.5 million in 2020, according to a Thursday report from NonFungible.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

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.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, has emerged as a leader in onchain RWAs, with ~$17.5B publicly tokenized. The platform’s ecosystem volume is growing ~40% YoY as it expands beyond HELOCs into student loans, DSCR loans, unsecured loans, bankruptcy claims, and more. Operationally, Figure cuts average loan production cost by ~93% and compresses median funding time from ~42 days to ~10, creating a durable speed-and-cost advantage.

article-image

The Ethereum co-founder suggested LINEA holders would be eligible for other airdrops in cryptic tweet

article-image

The layer-2’s biggest release yet brings benefits — but a post-upgrade outage caused a chain reorg

article-image

Crypto is shifting into risk-on mode — pump.fun dominates meme activity, while Lido leans on treasury maneuvers

article-image

If the president breaks the Fed, he’ll own the budget problems

article-image

Combining Franklin Templeton’s tokenization expertise with Binance’s trading infrastructure could speed crypto adoption, companies say

article-image

The firm’s upcoming filing comes as competition heats up over the USDH stablecoin