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The Dark Side of NFTs: A Large-Scale Empirical Study of Wash Trading

Published: 24 July 2024 Publication History

Abstract

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have seen significant growth since they first captured public attention in 2021. However, the NFT market is plagued by fake transactions and economic bubbles, e.g., NFT wash trading. Wash trading typically refers to a transaction involving the same person or two colluding individuals, and has become a major threat to the NFT ecosystem. Previous studies only detect NFT wash trading from the financial aspect, while the real-world wash trading cases are much more complicated (e.g., not aiming at inflating the market value). There is still a lack of multi-dimension analysis to better understand NFT wash trading. Therefore, we present the most comprehensive study of NFT wash trading, analyzing 8,717,031 transfer events and 3,830,141 sale events from 2,701,883 NFTs. We identify three types of NFT wash trading and propose identification algorithms. Our experimental results reveal 824 transfer events and 5,330 sale events (accounting for a total of $8,857,070.41) and 370 address pairs related to NFT wash trading behaviors, causing a minimum loss of $3,965,247.13. Furthermore, we provide insights from six aspects, i.e., marketplace design, profitability, NFT project design, payment token, user behavior, and NFT ecosystem.

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  • (2024)Exposing Stealthy Wash Trading on Automated Market Maker ExchangesACM Transactions on Internet Technology10.1145/3689631Online publication date: 23-Aug-2024

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  1. The Dark Side of NFTs: A Large-Scale Empirical Study of Wash Trading

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    Internetware '24: Proceedings of the 15th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware
    July 2024
    518 pages
    ISBN:9798400707056
    DOI:10.1145/3671016
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    Published: 24 July 2024

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    1. Blockchain
    2. Ethereum
    3. Non-Fungible Tokens
    4. Wash Trading

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    • (2024)Exposing Stealthy Wash Trading on Automated Market Maker ExchangesACM Transactions on Internet Technology10.1145/3689631Online publication date: 23-Aug-2024

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