NFT is blooming now. It is a global trend. And it seems that nothing can stop it. But, in fact, this movement is under a strict ban. Due to legal restrictions or financial risks, countries and, sometimes, companies, do not wish to have NFT trading in the country. Hence, it is reasonable to check the list of countries where OpenSea is banned.
Why do OpenSea, Rarible and other NFT marketplace stop operations in some countries?
If you are looking forward to trade NFT, the safest course of action for you to take in advance is checking legal status of NFT trading operations. In fact, the regulation surrounding cryptocurrencies (and NFTs) is unclear. For example, if Ethereum is, in fact, legal in your country then you have green light to trade NFT. At the same time, in some countries, even the possession of cryptos can be illegal and will lead to a jail.
Considering that, different countries hold different stances on cryptocurrency and their regulations. We have created a list of countries with not favourable conditions for NFT operations. That’s why, the NFT marketplaces stop their operations in this countries and it’s possible to get access to OpenSea, Rarible or SuperRare only through VPN.
Why is OpenSea blocked in some countries?
There are two main reasons why OpenSea does not grant access to their website in some countries and you can see “Error 1020: access denied”.
International Financial Embargo
International sanctions are an important tool to disrupt the financing of terrorists. Due to technological advancement and transparency of operations, criminals may use cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for their crimes. As a result the financial institutions limit the third-country transactions, in particular, trading of NFT and cryptoassets .
Ban on operations with cryptocurrencies and crypto assets
Some of the countries have a ban on operations with cryptocurrencies and crypto assets. So, if you are a crypto trader and plan to become NFT marketplace, then it’s not a good idea to register the company in such countries.
It is impossible to enter the market of a particular country if it has a bad regulation environment.
Hence, NFT marketplaces with strong reputation don’t want to work in countries with non-transparent regulations of crypto.
List of Countries Where OpenSea is Banned
OpenSea is available in most of the countries on Earth. However, below you can find a list of different countries. The company has completely banned them because of their policies against cryptocurrencies. As well as financial instability. In fact, Ethereum is banned or its payments are banned alongside other cryptocurrencies in:
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Belarus
- Bolivia
- Bangladesh
- Pakistan
- Republic of Macedonia
- Saudi Arabia
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
OpenSea doesn’t work when Ethereum is not legal
Additionally to the countries where Ethereum is banned, there are more countries in which OpenSea does not work properly. The main reason for this is impossibility to use ETH for payment.
In such countries, banks and other financial service providers cannot deal with cryptocurrency exchanges. However, in exceptional cases, such as China’s, the country has banned all crypto exchanges.
As a result, the list of countries with restricted ETH transactions includes:
- American Samoa
- China
- Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- India
- Indonesia
- Morocco
- Nepal
- Qatar
- Venezuela
- Zambia
Rarible does not work in some countries
Additionally, to OpenSea, other NFT marketplaces implemented their restrictions for specific countries as well.
For example, Rarible has the same list of banned countries as the OpenSea.
Additionally, most of the global companies, which work with NFT and cryptocurrencies, particularly, with headquarters in the US, consider the list of countries with the US sanctions.
Currently, these countries include the Balkans, Belarus, Burma, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe. The list of sanctioned countries is available here.
Hi Mary…
I have a question please
Can i use OpenSea (buy & sell) safely with VPN?
Hi Youssef,
Thanks for your question. I suggest the answer is yes because:
It hides your IP address to prevent IP tracking by hackers, government officials, and forensic analysis firms, so you can buy and sell crypto completely anonymously (if you avoid KYC/AML exchanges).
However, you must remember that most of free VPN providers will have a log of your activities (including crypto activities like buy/sell NFT at OpenSea); they tend to fund themselves by selling your private data.
However, your money (I mean ETH) are locked in your MetaMask wallet. Hence, there is no obvious reason to be concerned about crypto when using VPN. The only thing which you need – to choose the reliable VPN provider.
If you are a beginner and want to try this way of NFT trading, it’s probably fine to start with free VPN. Otherwise, think about any subscription-based VPNs with better privacy and security.
Sincerely,
Mary