In the crypto industry, unfortunately, NFT theft is a real problem. The most concerning aspect is that these stolen NFTs can be sold off within a matter of hours. There are various ways in which NFTs can be stolen, such as cyber attackers breaking into your wallet and stealing NFTs or losing access to your login details or private keys.
In many cases, NFTs are stolen by cyber attackers who gain access to the owner's wallet. Once they have possession, it's usually not long before they find a way to sell the stolen NFTs. It's important to recover stolen NFTs within three hours, as after that, the chances of recovery decrease significantly.
According to research done by PeckShield, the NFTs stolen in June this year were much lower than in any other month of the year. According to PeckShield data, about $2.27 million of NFTs were stolen in June.
#PeckShieldAlert In June 2023, ~$2.27M worth of #NFTs were stolen, marking a 23% decrease compared to the previous month. Within a span of 160 minutes, half of the stolen NFTs were promptly sold on various marketplaces. The percentage of stolen NFTs initially sold on @blur_io… pic.twitter.com/0bhYs3CzTL
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) July 3, 2023
But here's the catch with this new information. PeckShield also revealed most of the stolen NFTs were sold within 3 hours of going missing. In other words, within 160 minutes of getting missing, most stolen NFTs have already been sold at NFT marketplaces like Opensea and Blur. Their data and illustration showed a step-by-step process of how hackers sell off their NFTs immediately after they steal them from people.
"#PeckShieldAlert In June 2023, ~$2.27M worth of #NFTs were stolen, marking a 23% decrease compared to the previous month. Within a span of 160 minutes, half of the stolen NFTs were promptly sold on various marketplaces. The percentage of stolen NFTs initially sold on
@blur_io
was 86%, followed by
@opensea
with 13.76%," PeckShield said on Twitter.
Half of the Stolen NFTs Sold Within 160 Minutes
The illustration PeckShield gave in their post showed that approximately half of the stolen NFTs get sold within 160 minutes of being missing. So if you are recovering stolen NFTs, there's a 50% chance it has been sold within 160 minutes after it got missing. Then within the 5-hour mark, about 60% of stolen NFTs are sold. In most cases, no stolen NFT remains with the hacker after 24 hours, as they have all been sold out.
Also Read: Large NFT Collections Suffer Incredible Losses in 2023
June stats also showed the number of stolen NFTs was the lowest since 2023 started. In January, about $4.4 million in NFTs were stolen by hackers. February was the highest as more than $16 million worth of NFTs were stolen that month.
The numbers started decreasing as only about $10.9 million NFTs got stolen in March. In April and May, $3.23 and $2.95 million NFTs were stolen, respectively. However, the number decreased drastically in June as hackers only got to lay their hands on $2.27 NFTs.
Most NFTs Sold on Blur
The NFT platforms where stolen NFTs are sold have constantly changed since the year started. At the beginning of the year, Opensea had taken the lion's share at close to 50%. But their percentage slowly went down the drain as the bear market year progressed.
Blur, which started the year with a low percentage, has taken over the chart as more than 80% of stolen NFTs are being sold on the platform. Opensea is still in the race, although it has a small 13%.