NFT escrow service for private deals
Buying or selling an NFT outside a marketplace — a private sale, an OTC deal, a trade — means trusting a stranger to hold up their end. Vaultion is an NFT escrow service for the payment side: it locks the payment in a smart contract so the buyer's funds are committed and the seller gets paid once the NFT changes hands, with a dispute ruling to settle anything that goes wrong — Kleros jurors or a Vaultion reviewer on Ethereum, a Vaultion reviewer elsewhere.
Start an escrowPrivate deals, less risk
Payment committed up front
The buyer’s stablecoins lock in the contract before the deal, so the seller can transfer the NFT knowing the money is already there.
Release when it transfers
Once the buyer confirms they have received the NFT, they release the payment in one on-chain transaction.
A ruling for the edge cases
If the wrong asset is sent or the deal stalls, either side opens a dispute and it is ruled on: Kleros jurors or a Vaultion reviewer on Ethereum, a Vaultion reviewer elsewhere.
What to verify on a private NFT deal
On a private NFT sale the payment locks on-chain, and so does delivery. These are the checks that make both legs verifiable rather than a matter of trust.
Contract & token check
Confirm the exact contract address and token ID, and that the seller actually holds it. Escrow secures the payment, not the authenticity of the asset.
On-chain transfer
Release when the token lands in the buyer's wallet on-chain — a verifiable transfer, not a screenshot or a promise to send it later.
Royalties & fees
Factor in marketplace or creator royalties and the gas for the transfer, and agree who covers them before you set the escrow amount.
What counts as delivered
“Delivered” is the buyer confirming the token in their wallet. Both sides can point to the on-chain transfer if a dispute is opened.
NFT escrow for the buyer, and for the seller
A private NFT sale has two legs that cannot happen at the same instant: the payment and the token. The escrow fixes the order so neither side has to go first.
If you are buying an NFT
You do not send USDC to a seller in a Discord DM and wait. Your payment sits in the contract, visible on the block explorer, until the exact token is in your wallet and you release. If a different token arrives, or nothing does, you open a dispute instead of releasing, and the payment stays locked until it is ruled on.
If you are selling an NFT
You see the buyer’s payment committed on-chain before you sign a transfer, so there is no fake payment screenshot and nothing to reverse after the token has gone. Send the buyer a payment link with the price filled in, transfer once it is funded, and if the buyer receives the token and never releases you claim the payment when the review period ends.
How a private NFT deal settles
1. Pin down the exact token
Write the collection’s contract address and the token ID into the escrow terms, not the name or the image. Look-alike collections reuse both. The explorer page for that contract and ID is what both sides, and a reviewer, will check against.
2. Fund, then transfer
The buyer funds the escrow in USDC or USDT. The seller then transfers the NFT wallet to wallet, directly or through a marketplace’s transfer function. The payment never moves until the buyer confirms.
3. Confirm in your own wallet, then release
The buyer checks the token sits in their wallet on the explorer, with the right contract and ID, and releases. A preview in a marketplace listing is not receipt.
The honest limit
Vaultion escrows the payment, not the NFT. The two are not swapped atomically, so the token transfer is a separate transaction the seller signs after funding. What the escrow guarantees is the order: the money is locked first and released last. It can also hold a payment on a different network from the one the NFT lives on, because the token never passes through the contract. If you want to be careful about wallet approvals, receive the NFT into a fresh wallet.
Check the contract before you commit
Vaultion runs on a published, open-source contract that holds the funds — not Vaultion. You can read it and the locked balance on the block explorer before you send anything.
Frequently asked
Is there an NFT escrow service that never takes custody of the NFT?
Yes. Vaultion escrows the stablecoin payment only; the NFT moves wallet-to-wallet between the parties. The buyer funds the contract, the seller transfers the NFT, the buyer checks it arrived in their wallet and releases. Neither the payment nor the NFT is ever held by Vaultion.
How do I verify the NFT is the real one before I release?
Check the token in your own wallet on the block explorer: the collection’s contract address and the token ID must match what you wrote into the escrow terms. Names and images are copied by look-alike collections; the contract address and ID are not. Release only when both match.
Can I buy an NFT with USDC or USDT through escrow if the NFT is on a different chain?
Yes. The escrow holds the payment only, so it can sit on any supported network while the NFT is transferred on its own chain. Write the NFT’s chain, contract and token ID into the terms so the release condition is unambiguous.
Does Vaultion swap the NFT and payment atomically?
No — Vaultion escrows the stablecoin payment only. The NFT is transferred separately, wallet-to-wallet or via a marketplace; the escrow holds the money until the buyer confirms receipt, with Kleros as the fallback if there is a dispute.
What stops the seller from taking the money without sending the NFT?
The funds stay in the contract until the buyer releases them or a dispute ruling decides. The seller cannot pull the payment out on their own.
Which chains and tokens?
Payment is escrowed in USDC, USDT, DAI, or PYUSD on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Smart Chain, TRON, and Solana (token availability varies by network). The NFT can live wherever you transfer it.
What does it cost?
A tiered platform fee — 4% on smaller deals down to 2% on larger ones — is paid once when the escrow is created. What a dispute costs depends on the network. On Ethereum you choose at creation: Kleros charges a fee, paid in ETH by the party that raises the dispute, while a Vaultion reviewer costs nothing. On every other network a Vaultion reviewer handles it and there is no charge. Either way, no dispute means nothing extra to pay.
Lock an NFT deal
Set up an escrow in a few steps. Funds stay locked in the contract until the deal is done or arbitration decides.
Create an escrow