Trader loses 14,377 $APE (~$61,000) when they sell their Bored Ape
The former owner of Bored Ape #7810 presumably intended to agree to sell the ape to another buyer for 70 ETH (~$130,900). However, it's unlikely they intended for that buyer to also be able to access the staked $APE they had accrued. With this particular staking mechanism, the Bored Ape effectively serves as the "key" to the staked ApeCoin, and so it transferred to the NFT's new owner right along with the NFT.
Someone steals the Bored Ape belonging to former NFL star Dez Bryant
The latest ape escape has affected Dez Bryant, a former NFL player now turned "web3 innovator". Bryant was the proud owner of Bored Ape #2902, an ape with leopard print skin wearing shades, a sailor shirt, and a crown. However, on April 7, Bryant was apparently hacked, and the thief stole not only his ape but Moonbirds, World of Women, and RumbleKongLeague NFTs (one each) and some various cryptocurrencies.
The Bored Ape would likely fetch somewhere around $125,000 if resold. The other three NFTs would likely resell for somewhere around $8,700. Together with around $3,400 in stolen tokens, Bryant's total loss is around $139,000.
After some observers spotted the suspicious-looking transactions, Bryant confirmed on Twitter: "Yes my ape was stolen and I don't know how this is crazy".
- dez.eth on Etherscan
- Tweet by Dez Bryant
hideyoapes suffers $200,000 wallet drain
Bored Ape #5917 was the most expensive NFT stolen, selling for 68.6868 wETH (~$112,750) (attribution)"I still don't quite understand what happened here", wrote hideyoapes.eth after their wallet was drained of around 30 NFTs. They had previously owned several pricey NFTs from the various Yuga Labs collections, including a Bored Ape, Mutant Ape, three Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs, a SewerPass, and two Otherdeeds.
The thief sold all the NFTs and then transferred the proceeds from the sales to their own wallet. Altogether they made off with 127.3 wETH (~$208,000).
On Twitter, hideyoapes explained that they had downloaded and installed the MetaMask wallet extension from MetaMask's official website. "I didn’t think anything of it because it was the legit site and verified chrome app. While I was sleeping all my assets were sold," they wrote. At this point, it's not clear how exactly the hack was perpetrated.
Yuga Labs' 3-week-long "Dookey Dash" game tournament ends amidst allegations of widespread cheating
Yuga Labs released an endless runner game called "Dookey Dash" (really) where players compete to see how long they can keep their character navigating through a sewer pipe without crashing. Access to the game is granted through "Sewer Pass" NFTs, which can be claimed by people who own Bored Apes or Mutant Apes, but which were also trading on the secondary market for around 3.1 ETH ($5,100).
Yuga Labs has said that, following the end of the three-week-long game tournament, the Sewer Passes with non-zero scores in the game will transform into something new, with the idea that higher scorers may receive more valuable NFTs.
This, of course, incentivized users to try to cheat in the game by creating bots, changing the browser-based game code to eliminate obstacles, or access game seeds that allowed them to predict the layout of a course run. Sewer Pass holders began paying others to play their game for them — either more skilled players, or players who were using these tools. Some were charging up to 2.5 ETH (~$4,200) to obtain scores of 700,000 or more for those who hired them.
Yuga Labs has promised to review gameplay to ensure that those who cheated are disqualified. They've also warned people buying Sewer Passes after gameplay ended that if they buy a pass that is determined to have cheated, it will be worthless. Some are skeptical of Yuga's ability to accurately detect cheaters, and others have expressed concern over false positives in the game's cheat detection that appeared to be caused by slower Internet connections.
NFTs reportedly stolen from influencer CryptoNovo, flipped for at least $525,000
Crypto influencer CryptoNovo tweeted, "I just got hacked!!! Are you kidding me!?!" with a screenshot of valuable CryptoPunk NFTs being transferred from their account. An attacker apparently transferred from CryptoNovo's wallet two or three CryptoPunks, one Bored Ape, one Mutant Ape, three Meebits, and two CloneX NFTs — all "blue chip" NFTs that fetch high prices.
The thief quickly flipped all of the NFTs for around 417 ETH ($525,000). It's unclear if one of the CryptoPunks was stolen, as it was transferred to a wallet to whom CryptoNovo has previously made transfers, but that NFT too was sold for 75 ETH ($94,200).
The thief made a pretty penny, but the loss to CryptoNovo is more substantial based on how much money they spent on the NFTs. They had purchased the Bored Ape in August 2021 for 30 ETH (then around $100,000), and CryptoPunk #4608 in September 2021 for 290 ETH (then $850,000).
The attack appears to have been phishing-related.
Scammer steals fourteen Bored Apes from one victim, flips them for over $1 million
A scammer spent a month setting up a con in which they stole fourteen Bored Ape NFTs belonging to one individual. Posing as a casting director at a real film production company—complete with a fake website, a fake partner company, and fake individuals pretending to have signed deals with the company—a scammer was able to convince the collector that they were interested in paying $13,000–$17,000 to license a Bored Ape for use in an animation.
After some back-and-forth, with legitimate-looking contracts and falsified emails appearing to come from the real company's real founding director, the NFT collector was asked to use their crypto wallet to sign a contract, via the fake company partner website that had been set up.
When the collector did so, the smart contract drained the collector's wallet of its fourteen pricey Bored Ape NFTs, then accepted the highest offers that were outstanding on each of the Bored Apes, netting 852.9 ETH. The scammer converted the stolen ETH to the DAI stablecoin, making off with $1,075,000 in DAI.
U.S. SEC is investigating Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs
According to a scoop in Bloomberg, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has been probing whether NFTs from Yuga Labs should be considered securities regulations, and may be in violation of federal law.
Yuga Labs is the company behind the Bored Apes NFTs and spinoff projects (Mutant Apes, and Bored Ape Kennel Club), and in March also acquired the blue-chip NFT collections CryptoPunks and Meebits.
A probe does not necessarily mean that Yuga has violated the law, but such an investigation could have major ramifications for the world of NFTs.
NFT collector loses Bored Apes he bought for nearly $2 million in two consecutive scams
In an incredible display of misfortune and perhaps ineptitude, an NFT collector was scammed out of a Bored Ape and then scammed out of six more Bored Apes when he tried to revoke the permissions he'd granted for the first scam.
NFT trader Laszlo_btc went to swap his Bored Ape #8274 for another Bored Ape after reaching a deal with someone he met on Discord. He opened up Sudoswap to do the swap, but was tricked into trading his pricey NFT for a worthless NFT that was disguised to look like a Bored Ape. This is how Laszlo was scammed out of his first Bored Ape, which he'd only purchased three days prior, for 80 ETH (~$108,000). The scammer quickly flipped the NFT for around 70 ETH (~$92,000).
Realizing he'd been scammed, Laszlo went to revoke the permissions he'd granted in case he'd opened himself up to other thefts. However, instead of using the real permission revocation service Revoke.cash, he ended up using a phishing site: Revokecash.net. Only fifteen minutes after the first theft, six more Bored Apes were transferred out of his wallet.
Altogether, Laszlo had paid over $1.9 million for the collection of seven apes, which he purchased between January and October 2022. The priciest was Bored Ape #2951, which he bought for 173 ETH on May 1 — at the time, $490,000. The two sets of scammers quickly flipped all the NFTs, selling them for a total of $608,000.
Someone buys a Bored Ape, gets scammed out of it two hours later
In what might be a new record, someone bought a Bored Ape NFT for 70.69 ETH (~$116,000) and had it stolen from them less than two hours later. The scammer quickly flipped the NFT for 61.6969 ETH (~$101,000), then bridged the funds through RenBridge to cover their tracks.
Sub-primate lending: $5.3 million in Bored Apes used as loan collateral are at risk of being liquidated
When people started sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into Bored Ape NFTs, it wasn't long before people came up with the genius idea of using those NFTs as collateral for loans. BendDAO is one such platform offering the service, allowing people to post their Ape as collateral in exchange for a crypto loan equal to 30–40% of the Bored Apes collection's floor price. At one point, one borrower had 10,000 ETH (~$17.5 million) in loans from BendDAO against his 60-ape-strong collection (though he since repaid the loans).
However, NFTs in general haven't been doing so hot lately, and the Bored Apes haven't been immune from the slump. As the Bored Apes collection floor price has decreased, more than 15% of the apes used as collateral for BendDAO loans are in the "danger zone" — close to being auctioned off. These 45 apes are valued at roughly $5.3 million. Liquidation could lead to cascading liquidations, as the auctions could themselves cause the floor price to decrease.
As Bennett Tomlin put it, "I hate that y'all somehow created a risk for cascading liquidations of JPEG backed loans".