Anybody on OpenSea can burn an NFT (non-fungible token) by sending to a burn address. With Opensea there is a specific burn address where NFTs can be sent and removed from circulation. People can still view all the NFTs users have sent to this address but they can never be bought, sold or transferred out of the burn address.
- The OpenSea burn address is “0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD”
- URL Location: https://opensea.io/BurnAddress
- Opensea Profile Name: BurnAddress
- Etherscan: 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD
- Etherscan Asset & Token Holdings: https://etherscan.io/tokenholdings?a=0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD&q=l
An NFT can’t be ‘deleted’, however it can be ‘burned’. NFT burning is the process in which users can remove NFTs from circulation, which reduces the number of NFTs available to buy, sell, trade or transfer. The NFTs are sent to a dead wallet address that cannot be used for transactions other than receiving the NFTs or other tokens. The wallet is outside the network, and the NFTs can no longer be used.
About The OpenSea Burn Address
- “Burning” does not mean the NFT is deleted or no longer exists. Once an NFT is minted or uploaded to the blockchain, it is considered immutable; this means it will exist on the blockchain forever.
- Technically the NFT has been transferred to an ownerless or inaccessible address aka wallet i.e. a wallet from which they cannot ever be retrieved, it is removed from circulation.
- The burn address will be shown as the new “owner.”
- The NFT still exists in the ownerless wallet but since no one has control of the wallet the NFT can never be bought, sold or transferred. Essentially, it’s a DOA ETHaddress with no access.
- Sending/Burning NFTs to the OpenSea BurnAddress will not decrease the number of mints in a gallery/project.
- There are gas fees to burn/transfer the NFT to the burn address.
Why Burn An NFT?
- Creating scarcity: Burning an NFT decreases the supply and potentially raises the value.
- Changing, Trading and Gamifying: Utilizing burn mechanics to NFTs introduces more elaborate scenarios into the equation, including the ability for NFTs to be traded for something else.
- For Entertainment, Attention, Flexing, Status: Some people burn NFTs for a variety of intangible reasons. Crypto Twitter personality TaylorWTF once burned a Bored Ape and then tweeted about it.
- Token Error, Flaw, No Value, Malicious: Burning NFTs can rectify a project owners errors or remove unwanted or even potentially malicious NFTs from a wallet.
NFT Copyright & IP (Intellectual Property) Rights After Burning
NFTs, such as works of art, are protected by copyright and most often rights to an NFT owner must be transferred via the terms and conditions. Buyers do not inherently acquire the underlying work of art. For instance, Yuga Labs conferred the intellectual property (IP) rights to the underlying artwork of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs whereas CryptoPunks did not. Therefore not all NFTs in a burn address are public domain and an NFT such as a CryptoPunk would not be in the public domain simply because it’s been burned or has no owner.
Burned NFTs such as the Bored Apes are in far more murkier territory since no one technically owns the NFT. Further complicating the matter is that there is no known case law involving this matter. The closest we can get to this matter is when Taylor.WTF tried to sell his Burnt Ape on OpenSea. This led to a dispute between Yuga Labs and Taylor.WTF but was ultimately resolved amicably and delisted from OpenSea.
What Is In The OpenSea Burn Address?
Here are a few of the highlights of the over 140,000 NFTs that are “owned” by BurnAddress.
These serums were air dropped to the above BAYC NFTs and since the drop was after they were burned this address received them. There is no APE coin since it had to be claimed and was not an air drop to a wallet.
Cryptocurrency Held by the OpenSea Burn Address
In addition to NFTs the burn address has also received millions in other assets including tokens and liquidity pool assets. As an example there is over 12,500 ETH sent to the burn address.
Etherscan Token Holdings: https://etherscan.io/tokenholdings?a=0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD&q=l
How To Filter The Burn Address
Filtering and searching through the burn address is a fascinating experience to see what people actually burn. From CryptoPunks and Bored Apes to junk NFT projects and ETH domain names it’s all there.
Filter Options Include
- Status
- Buy Now
- On Auction
- New
- Has Offers
- Price
- United States Dollar (USD)
- Ethereum
- Min to Max
- Collections
- Type a collection to filter
- Chains
- Ethereum
- Polygon
- Klatyn
- Categories
- Art
- Collectibles
- Domain Names
- Music
- Photography
- Sports
- Trading Cards
- Utility
- Virtual Worlds
- On Sale In
- ETH
- WETH
- $BASED
- $DG
- 0xBTC
Search Options Include:
- Items
- All Items
- Single Items
- Bundles
- Recency
- Recently Listed
- Recently Created
- Recently Sold
- Recently Received
- Ending Soon
- Price: Low to High
- Price: High to low
- Highest Last Sale
- Most Viewed
- Most Favorited
- Oldest
The burn collection can also be viewed with two display options; large and small.
How To Send To The OpenSea Burn Address
There are two ways to transfer NFTs to the burn address via OpenSea and another way via a wallet.
Option 1: Transfer the NFT to the burn address directly from the Profile page.
- Navigate to the NFT you’d like to burn.
- Hover your mouse at the bottom left hand corner of the item card to prompt the text More options.
- Click in to prompt the context menu and click Transfer.
- Confirm your selection and click Transfer.
- Enter the recipients wallet address (ENS names are acceptable too) and click Transfer again.
- Confirm the signature request in your wallet.
- You will get a confirmation message once the item has been transferred.
Option 2: Transfer an NFT to the burn address directly from the item page.
- Navigate to the arrow-shaped Transfer button in the top-right corner.
- Enter the recipient’s wallet address.
- Enter the recipients wallet address and click Transfer.
- Confirm the signature request in your wallet.
- You will get a confirmation message once the item has been transferred.
Option 3: Transfer the NFT to the burn address directly via crypto wallets such as MetaMask.
- Go to the MetaMask app and click on NFTs.
- Select the NFT you would like to burn and click Send.
- Paste the recipient address and click Next, confirm the NFT selection by clicking Next again.
- To confirm the transfer, click Send.
- Once the transfer is completed, you will get a confirmation message.
Go to the OpenSea burn address to view the burned (transferred) NFT. You can also view the confirmation on Etherscan by clicking View transaction.
Hiding Items On OpenSea
Alternatively, NFTs can be hidden on OpenSea. This does NOT remove the NFT from your wallet and full ownership is maintained.
- To start, click the More options button on the bottom of the left corner of your NFT.
- Next, click Hide at the bottom of the context menu.
- Once you’re sure about which items you’d like to hide, click Hide button on the bottom right corner of the screen.
- You’ll receive a pop-up message, confirming how many items were hidden from your profile.
- The item(s) will move to the Hidden tab, visible only to you on OpenSea.
Joe Wallace has covered real estate and financial topics, including crypto and NFTs since 1995. His work has appeared on Veteran.com, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and many print and online publications. Joe is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News.
