OpenSea bans PHAYC and Phunky Ape Yacht Club, two NFT projects dueling over which is the authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club ripoff
And dodging NFT marketplace bans while doing it — A pair of non-fungible token projects are testing the boundary between plagiarism and parody.
The VergeAdi Robertson
Context & Ripple Effects
OpenSea's action lands amid a broader credibility problem for NFT marketplaces: related coverage describes the platform as grappling with security incidents and copycat NFT collections. The dispute matters because the two projects are contesting authenticity while using a collection modeled on Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Later coverage of creators boycotting OpenSea and Blur over reduced royalty rates shows that marketplace rules had become a central point of conflict between platforms and NFT creators, not merely a technical listing decision.
First-order effects
PHAYC and Phunky Ape Yacht Club lose access to OpenSea's marketplace, while OpenSea assumes responsibility for judging where parody, plagiarism, and impersonation cross its rules.
Bored Ape Yacht Club gains a major marketplace intervention against projects built around its visual identity, even though the two banned projects dispute which of them is the authentic ripoff.
Second-order effects
NFT buyers must assess provenance across marketplaces as projects attempt to evade bans, reducing the value of a marketplace listing as a simple signal of legitimacy.
Other NFT marketplaces face pressure to define comparable policies for copycat collections or become alternative venues for projects excluded by OpenSea.
Third-order effects
NFT marketplaces are becoming active governors of collection identity and trading access, despite the sector's decentralized branding.
As platform rules encompass copycats, royalties, and security, the crypto legitimacy gap increasingly turns on marketplace policy rather than token ownership alone.
The trend: NFT trading platforms are shifting from neutral venues toward rule-setting intermediaries that determine which collections receive market access and legitimacy.
An NFT project that was just Bored Apes flipped to face left instead of right made $1.8 million before being kicked off of OpenSea. Scammers scamming scammers. https://www.theverge.com/...
So here's the deal: yes, NFTs are reinventing property rights. But, without rich #trust and #identity solutions, they're just going to make work for IP lawyers. https://twitter.com/...
Say what you like about NFTs, but in most fields of collecting, it takes decades for arguments about whether something is a REAL fake to get going. https://twitter.com/...
🎵So won't the unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership please stand up, please stand up🎵 https://www.theverge.com/...
The full story is even more hilarious. They're both copying high-priced apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, flipping them horizontally, and minting them as new NFTs. :D https://www.theverge.com/...
And herein lies the core of the issue: “There's very little legal precedent surrounding #NFTs at all, let alone their copyright implications.” https://www.theverge.com/...
2021 continues to delight with headlines like “Two NFT copycats are fighting over which is the real fake Bored Ape Yacht Club”. https://www.theverge.com/... #NFTs