While some commentators have claimed that the trader accidentally put up an offer for 100 Ether, which was immediately accepted, others have claimed that the transaction was a wash deal. A nonfungible token (NFT) trader appears to have fat-fingered an offer for a gratis NFT by purchasing it for 100 Ether, which is presently worth $191,239, rather than nothing. The free NFTs in the Gemesis NFT collection by NFT marketplace OpenSea were created to accompany the April 4 launch of OpenSea Pro. The trader’s offer represents a 250% premium above the floor price of 0.04 ETH.

With its “vastly upgraded” set of services, including live cross-markets data and sophisticated orders, OpenSea Pro is a marketplace aggregator geared toward professional users. While others have claimed the sale resulted from wash trading, Twitter user “0xSun” said it happened because the trader unintentionally bid 100 ETH when he or she meant to bid $100 on the NFT marketplace Blur.

So what exactly happened? It was not you that put the bid?

— Morgan (@Helloimmorgan) April 5, 2023

The wash trading theory was also questioned by a Reddit user who commented on the sale, who claimed that because it was an open offer that was open to everyone, it was too risky to be a wash trade because another trader or bot would likely quickly accept an offer that was so much above the floor price.

“I know what you guys are thinking it was a wash trade but this was an open offer that could have been accepted by anybody, so it would be a pretty big risk hoping you were faster than anybody else looking at the offers at that moment.”

To provide false information to the market, a trader engages in wash trading, a type of market manipulation. While it is forbidden in conventional stock exchanges, the technique is highly common in NFT trading. On April 25, 2022, OpenSea purchased NFT aggregator Gem for an unknown sum, then improved the platform to produce OpenSea Pro. To mint a Gemesis NFT, you must have purchased at least one NFT on Gem before March 31. The minting window will end on May 4.