The world’s largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, confirmed banning NFT artists from nations sanctioned by the U.S. The ban became public after NFTcuba.Art, the project that empowers Cuban artists to thrive in the NFT space, tweeted on its Twitter handle that its profile had stopped appearing on the marketplace.
OpenSea Says Ban is per the Applicable Law
NFTcuba.Art has claimed unfair application of the sanctions to Cuban-born artists residing outside the country. In addition, it suspects that the OpenSea ban was due to the word Cuba appearing in its project name. However, the NFT marketplace has come out saying it’s only following United States sanctions law.
In a statement, OpenSea cited that its Service Terms strictly prohibit persons in sanctioned nations from accessing OpenSea. Additionally, the NFT marketplace said it would continue to evaluate various measures the firm must take to serve its community while complying with the applicable law.
Multiple legal authorities effectuate the American sanctions against Cuba. They could be federal statutes or executive orders. In addition, these sanctions are complex and tend to target particular activities like economic activity. Due to these impediments, OpenSea cited it won’t allow Cubans to use its services.
Associated Press reported that Cuban artists have never got informed why their OpenSea accounts were subject to suspension, with some assuming that the firm could be taking that move out of caution. Also, adding to the confusion is that most artists no longer live in Cuba. For instance, the NFTcuba.Art’s founder currently resides in the United States.
NFT Artists Suffer as U.S. Adds More Countries on Sanctions List
In March this year, Iranian artists noted that their accounts got banned from the NFT marketplace. At that time, an OpenSea spokesperson said that the firm blocked the Iranian artists from selling and buying NFTs on its platform because their country appeared on the American sanctions list.
The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Russia and has persistently enforced them. For example, in October 2022, the Treasury Department penalized Bittrex, a crypto exchange, over $50 million for letting traders living in Syria, Cuba, Sudan, and Iran bypass American sanctions.
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