‘Analysis Ongoing’: Nifty Gateway Addresses NFT Security Concerns

The popular NFT marketplace suggests users use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication.

Nifty Gateway, the popular non-fungible token marketplace, warned in a statement that a small group of its users experienced “account takeovers.” Victims have claimed they either had their NFTs stolen or NFTs purchased using their credit card information and then stolen.

One Twitter user claims to have lost more than $150,000 worth of NFTs.

Another Twitter user claims to have had his credit card information used to purchase more than $10,000 in NFTs. He also says his pre-purchased NFTs have been stolen.

In its statement Nifty said, “Our analysis is ongoing but our initial assessment indicates that the impact was limited, none of the impacted accounts had 2FA enabled, and access was obtained via valid account credentials.”

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is not currently mandatory on Nifty Gateway, but that may be changing. 2FA is an extra layer of security that forces someone to provide two pieces of evidence proving his or her identity when trying to access an online account. Usually it comes in the form of a password and a unique code for one-time use.

“A few users were targeted and got their passwords compromised,” said Nifty Gateway co-founder Griffin Cock Foster on Twitter. “In the meantime, make sure you have Authy 2fa turned on, it would have prevented this!! We are strongly exploring making Authy 2fa mandatory for anyone who has made a purchase, but no commitments there yet.”

NFTs have exploded in popularity in recent months, with one piece of digital artwork by the artist Beeple selling for $69.3M in ETH on Friday.