Update: As of Sept. 29, 2020, Opensea has relisted the PolygonPunks NFTs.
Leading nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has delisted the successful Polygon-based copy of CryptoPunks, Polygonpunks.
According to screenshots of the marketplace taken shortly before the NFT collectibles were removed, PolygonPunks had emerged as the second-most popular collection on OpenSea by volume with roughly $37,000 worth of trade in 24 hours.
With upset users vocal on social media, OpenSea’s Nate Chastain took to Twitter to explain the marketplace’s action, describing the incident as a “buyer safety issue.”
Chastain notes that OpenSea does not verify projects deemed to comprise “light homage” or “derivative collections,” stating that it defers to the judgment of “the original IP creator” as to whether or not projects like PolygonPunks should be removed from the marketplace.
“It’s a buyer safety issue where verifications get easily misconstrued as indicating a relationship to the source material that some users have gotten confused by in the past.”
Chastain’s comments suggest that PolygonPunks may have been removed from OpenSea at the behest of CryptoPunks’ creator, Larva Labs.
#Cryptopunks seems to feel threatened by #PolygonPunks!
— Cryptohelvetian (@motioncomplexx) August 4, 2021
Shortly after the minting of 10k @PunksOnPolygon ended and the trading on @opensea started, the #PolygonPunks got delisted.
To the owners of @PunksOnPolygon - I ask you to sign this petition: https://t.co/svjIQUBAZS
Social media reports suggest OpenSea’s Discord forum became overwhelmed by disgruntled users, at one point leading to the forum suspending the onboarding of new members.
According to DappRadar, CryptoPunks is the third-most popular NFT project by trade volume, with more than $13 million worth of tokens trading hands in the past 24 hours.
Related: OpenSea’s daily volume is exceeding its 2020 total
PolygonPunks is not the only CryptoPunks derivative capturing the community’s imagination, with the Solana-based SolPunks also selling out on launch before fetching five-figure prices on secondary markets.
SolPunks are trading on the Solanart marketplace, where they drove more than $1 million worth of trade in 24 hours on Monday.
Over $1,000,000 in volume traded in 24 hours (30,619 $SOL), a record sale of 2,000 $SOL ($70,896) and 2000 followers
— Solanart - NFT Marketplace on Solana (@SolanartNFT) August 1, 2021
To celebrate these crazy days on #Solana, we will be giving away 500 @BoldBadgers #NFT at launch to users of Solanart (therefore Solpunks owners)
Stay tuned pic.twitter.com/fbvarq7Y4z
UPDATE: 8/10/21. PolygonPunks are no longer available on the Cargo marketplace, according to the project spokesperson.