OpenSea

OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace, where users buy, sell and mint NFTs on Ethereum and other EVM networks; it also offers token swaps. OpenSea is a US company and applies US sanctions to its users.

Rating B: 2 restrictions: 1 country + Wallet screening. NFT marketplace · Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Blast, Zora.

Official app: opensea.io. Frontend code: closed.

Restrictions

• Geo Block: yes. Blocks users and territories on US sanctions lists; in March 2022 Iranian users, including Iranian artists living abroad, lost access to their accounts (company statement and press reports). Blocked countries: Iran.
• Feature Block: n/a.
• Wallet screening: reported. Account-level sanctions checks; accounts deactivated by nationality, not only by location (2022 reports) Where it runs: API. Fail mode: n/a.
• VPN / Tor detection: n/a.
• Terms of Service: opensea.io/tos, Last updated unknown. Persons and territories under US sanctions (company statements, 2022)

Notes

Closed frontend. NFTs live in public contracts (Seaport is open source), so other marketplaces can trade the same assets.

Evidence

• www.artnews.com/art-news/news/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-us-sanctions-1234621105/
• fortune.com/crypto/2022/03/04/opensea-metamask-block-users-sanctions
• forkast.news/opensea-blocks-iranian-users-sanctions/

Checked 2026-10-10. All interfaces · Methodology