NFTs hosted on the FTX platform are now corrupted and invisible, Solana blockchain engineer reveals. In theory, they no longer have any value.
New revelations in the FTX scandal. After learning that FTX was selling fake bitcoins to its users, it appears that its NFT (non-fungible token) policy was not exemplary either.
As a reminder, an NFT (“Non Fungible Token”) is a digital title issued by a blockchain (primarily Ethereum) and associated with a digital asset (photo, video, etc.). Each NFT is unique and cannot be reproduced. NFTs are used in art, in the luxury sector or for trading cards in sports.
“Damaged”
Taking to Twitter, Solana blockchain engineer “Jac0xb.sol” (who likely had NFTs floating around on that blockchain) revealed that the metadata of NFTs hosted on FTX was “corrupted” and has now been redirected to FTX’s restructuring page. As a reminder, the giant FTX went bankrupt on Friday 11th November.
“Oh look, FTX hosted all new NFTs on their platform using a Web2 API and now all these NFTs have corrupted metadata and the links go to a restructured website. […] There’s a lesson to be learned here, but collections still host metadata on Amazon Web Service.
Furthermore, FTX used a centralized service (Amazon Web Service) from web2 to host the metadata of these NFTs, while this universe is more correlated with web 3’s decentralized services.
More visible
For holders of NFTs hosted on FTX, this means that while NFTs still exist, their images are no longer viewable “even if they display them in wallets or list them on NFT exchanges”. highlighted the trade medium Bitcoin.com. Users “find themselves with NFTs with corrupted metadata, the latter being the essential component of an NFT,” points out crypto cast.
Just as users could transfer their private keys (cryptocurrencies) to cold wallets to hold them and not depend on a centralized platform, they could do the same with their NFTs. But it seems too late. “The metadata itself is corrupted, so unfortunately that doesn’t save it,” the outlet said.