Almost $3M Of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Swindled From Makers In Massive Hack

Unfortunately for some collectors of the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs), its official Twitter account has reported that its Instagram account was hacked earlier in the week.

According to ARTnews, four BAYC NFTs were stolen, along with several other NFTs from another project by Yuga Labs, the creator of the highly sought-after digital assets. 

“The IG hack resulted in four Apes, six Mutants, three Kennels, and some other assorted valuable NFTs being lost. We will be in contact with the users affected and will post a full post-mortem on the attack when we can,” said co-founder Greg Solano.

He emphasized that BAYC had used two-factor authentication security measures on its end, but a hacker managed to post a veiled fraudulent link on the official Instagram account that led victims to a fake BAYC website with the guise of minting a special release. 

Once the collectors had entered their information on the phishing site, the hacker was able to gain access to their Ethereum wallets and steal their existing virtual assets. 

Twitter user Zachxbt, who is known for investigating hacks in the crpytocurrency world, said he believed nearly US$3 million worth of NFTs were stolen, most of the value in the Apes that were taken. 

As per CryptoPotato, it seems the hacker’s link had made it onto online marketplace OpenSea as well, but has since been removed from its site. 

Hopefully, there’ll be a way for those affected to recoup their losses. As always, be vigilant and check website URLs before entering important details.

Immediately upon discovering the hack, we alerted our community, removed links to the compromised IG account from our platforms and attempted to recover the account.

— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022

[via ARTnews and CryptoPotato, cover image via BAYC]