NFT marketplace Cent shuts, citing ‘rampant’ fakes, plagiarism problem
LONDON (REUTERS) – The platform which sold an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for US$2.9 million (S$3.9 million) has halted transactions because people were selling tokens of content that did not belong to them, its founder said, calling this a “fundamental problem” in the fast-growing digital assets market.
Sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, soared to around US$25 billion in 2021, leaving many baffled as to why so much money is being spent on items that do not physically exist and which anyone can view online for free.
NFTs are crypto assets that record the ownership of a digital file such as an image, video or text. Anyone can create, or “mint”, an NFT, and ownership of the token does not usually confer ownership of the underlying item.
Reports of scams, counterfeits and “wash trading” have become commonplace.
The US-based Cent executed one of the first known million-dollar NFT sales when it sold former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s tweet as an NFT last March.
But as of Feb 6, it has stopped allowing buying and selling, chief executive officer and co-founder Cameron Hejazi told Reuters.
“There’s a spectrum of activity that is happening that basically shouldn’t be happening – like, legally,” Hejazi said.
Hejazi highlighted three main problems: people selling unauthorised copies of other NFTs, people making NFTs of content which does not belong to them, and people selling sets of NFTs which resemble a security.
He said these issues were “rampant”, with users “minting and minting and minting counterfeit digital assets”.
“It kept happening. We would ban offending accounts but it was like we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole… Every time we would ban one, another one would come up, or three more would come up.”
‘Money chasing money’
Such problems may come into greater focus as major brands join the rush towards the so-called “metaverse”, or Web3.
Coca-Cola and luxury brand Gucci are among companies to have sold NFTs, while YouTube said it will explore NFT features.
