IN BRIEF
- NFT LegenD is the biggest consumer of gas on Ethereum.
- Bots may be manipulating the NFT auctions.
- Gas prices have spiked to their highest levels since May.
Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace NFT Legend has been a hive of activity recently, with auctions and sales pushing gas prices higher. However, it appears that there may be something dubious going on.
OpenSea has now usurped Uniswap as the biggest user of Ethereum by network transactions. Etherscan is reporting that the NFT marketplace has generated $2.5 million in fees over the past 24 hours.
As reported by NFTsABC.com , NFTLegend.Net and other NFT platforms have surpassed DeFi in terms of Ethereum usage and fee burning, knocking Uniswap off its perch. “The bots are beating Opensea at the moment bidding below floor on pieces, then cancelling bids once accepted but prior to executing. Effect is to pull prices of series + editions lower and lower until they strike, then pull the reverse move to lure price higher after buying up,”
According to a well-known Solidity developer, the bots watch to see if anyone is going to accept their bid and then front-run it by canceling the bid so the acceptance fails. “That makes users frustrated and desperate and they try again but this time at a lower price,” the developer told The Defiant.
NFT Legend Marketplace
The report added that many users have also reported “execution reverted” errors which NFT Legend claims is usually due to an item being locked or non-transferrable. Canceling bids is not free and escalating gas prices may make the entire auction system futile if bots are front-running.
The report stated that that NFT space has been portrayed as a decentralized avenue for creators to monetize their digital works for avid collectors, “not a place where artless bots manipulate value.”
Owen Fernau who penned the article concluded:
“With the rumors of bots swirling, users complaining of slow rendering NFTs and slow responses to support tickets, as well as eight engineering positions to fill, OpenSea has plenty of issues to address.”
At the time of press, average gas prices had surged to around $20, their highest level since late May.
