In an unexpected turn of events, OpenSea, a widely recognized digital marketplace, put a halt to the trading of Ether.Fi’s newly-launched non-fungible token (NFT) collection, Ether.Fan. This decision taken by OpenSea was based on its apprehension about financial activities that require explicit registration and licensing.
A Closer Look at the Suspended Ether.Fan Collection
On a Tuesday, dated July 11, Ether.Fi unveiled its NFT collection, Ether.Fan. As per the team, these NFTs were primarily centered on “staked ETH and the concept of Ethereum decentralization.”
Mike Silagadze, the man at the helm of Ether.Fi, had labeled the launch of their 3,000-NFT collection as “overwhelmingly successful”. He declared that all the NFTs were minted within a day, with a total of more than 6,200 ETH staked during the process.
However, the NFT marketplace made a decision to remove the Ether.Fan collection shortly after it began to be listed on its platform. Post this, Ether.Fi stated that it was not given any prior warning, notice, or explanation before their collection was withdrawn from the marketplace.
Moreover, according to an open letter by the Ether.Fi CEO, his team tried to reach OpenSea swiftly through various channels but did not receive a response for the initial few days. They later received a generic response from OpenSea, explaining their action.
Open Letter From Ether.Fi’s CEO Criticizes OpenSea’s Decision
On the same Tuesday, Mike Silagadze published an open letter on Medium expressing his discontent with OpenSea’s decision to suspend the trading of its Ether.Fan NFT collection. The CEO voiced his disappointment, mentioning that his team was not given any prior notice or warning despite supposedly having a good relationship with the marketplace.
Silagadze mentioned that his team was in constant contact with OpenSea before launching the Ether.Fan collection, making sure that the NFTs were compatible with OpenSea’s platform and “looked right”.
Silagadze also pointed out that his team received no indication that their actions would be an issue during this entire process. He stated, “This project in the NFTfi category of utility NFTs was intentionally prosaic and non-speculative. So why would it be an issue?”
According to the Ether.Fi CEO, the NFTs in its collection are merely wrapped staked Ether with a PFP. Following OpenSea’s action, he believes that the marketplace is taking a conservative “stance that staked ETH is subject to licensing and registration.”
Interestingly, Silagadze took a direct jab at OpenSea, labeling the marketplace as a “de facto unlicensed casino where people engage in ruinous gambling and spend millions on pictures of monkeys.”
Silagadze added, “This is apparently all great and okay, but listing a collection that actually has utility is disallowed because it has utility.”
While the Ether.Fan collection is currently not listed on OpenSea, it is available on Rarible with a floor price of 0.12 ETH.
