Solana NFT marketplace MagicEden suffers from exploitation as fake NFTs appear as part of verified collections

• Solana-based NFT creators and collectors have been exploited due to the rise of fake NFTs.
• MagicEden stated that the issues had been resolved and less than ten collections were affected by the exploit.
• NFT transactions were in decline across the crypto space throughout Q3 and Q4 2022, but December saw a 246% jump in NFT sales.

There has been a significant increase in interest in Solana NFTs in recent months, leading to an influx of new traders and buyers. The largest NFT marketplace on the blockchain, MagicEden, has been the biggest beneficiary of this growing interest. Naturally, the marketplace also became the target of fraudsters.

Solana NFTs suffer from fraud

Solana NFT traders noted the appearance of fake non-fungible tokens (NFT) from well-known pools such as ABC on the largest marketplace on the network, MagicEden. The fake NFTs were sold as part of the collections for high values ​​despite being worth almost nothing.

Upon discovery, MagicEden took action and ended the exploit before the situation worsened. The NFT marketplace stated that it had resolved the issue of fake NFTs being listed on aggregation pages, as well as the appearance of fake NFT transactions.

In addition to the same, MagicEden confirmed that less than ten collections were affected by the exploit and that an incident report will be published soon.

Metaplex, a Solana-based NFT mining and development platform, announced that the issue of counterfeit NFTs was not evident on their platform. The platform further stated,

“There is an ongoing bug at Magic Eden that allows an attacker to list and sell fake NFTs that are not part of a creator’s verified collection… To avoid this, marketplaces should check (a) that the collection address matches and is verified OR (b) the creator addresses match and are all verified. We recommend the former.”

NFTs register a surprise jump

NFTs across the crypto space had recorded a monthly decline in sales throughout 2022. While December was expected to follow suit, a sudden surge in transactions saw monthly sales skyrocket by 246%.

NFT sales monthly volume

Year-end sales for the month of December pushed total volume from $410 million to $1.43 billion, marking the highest sales in about seven months. Currently, January 2023 is expected to pull in just $300 million. However, a sudden surge in interest could increase the final figure.