Hackers Nab NFTs Worth Millions From Gallery Owner
A gallery owner was shocked to discover that NFTs worth millions of dollars had been stolen from his cryptocurrency wallet in what he described as 'arguably the worst night of my life'.
ARTnews reports that a phishing scam had drained Todd Kramer's Ethereum wallet of 15 NFTs reportedly worth a total of $2.2 million (£1.6m).
The culprits then reportedly sold off a number of pieces from Kramer’s collection.
Kramer, of New York’s Ross+Kramer gallery, wrote in a since-deleted tweet posted on 30 December: “I have been hacked. All my apes gone. This just sold people help me.”
Of course, he doesn't mean real apes, rather the four pieces from the popular NFT collection Bored Yacht Ape Club he owns.
Eminem, Jimmy Fallon and Snoop Dogg also own NFTs from the collection.
Twitter users didn’t seem too sympathetic, as they were keen to point out Kramer invested his money in an unregulated system that would be unable to help him recover the lost digital pieces.
Nevertheless, NFT platform OpenSea reportedly stepped in to help Kramer out, so the gallery owner was able to get back several of his lost NFTs, including his precious apes.
In a further since-deleted tweet, uploaded five hours after his original post, he stated: “Update...All Apes are frozen...Waiting for OpenSea team to get in...lessons learned. Use a hard wallet...”
NFT-savvy individuals will be aware that a hard wallet, also known as a cold wallet, is physical and only connects to the internet when plugged in and in use.
Kramer, clearly not as savvy, had been using a hot wallet, which is far more vulnerable to scams as it is continuously connected to the internet.
Reports of OpenSea’s involvement has sparked major controversy throughout the NFT scene, with many claiming that their intervention goes against the notion of decentralisation thought to be the premise of NFTs.
Others suggested the stolen NFTs could still be bought and sold on other platforms, as OpenSea had only frozen the pieces on their site alone.
LADbible has contacted OpenSea and Ross+Kramer for a comment.
Last month, one of the Bored Ape NFTs accidentally sold for just over $3,000 (£2,217.76) after a 'fat-fingered' typing error.
The owner of Bored Ape 3547 was listing the digital artwork for sale, which is one of only 10,000 available, when they accidentally entered just 0.75 Ethereum (ETH) rather than 75 ETH.
An automated account instantly snapped up the artwork and put it back on sale for nearly $250,000 (£184,813.75).
With stakes that high, we’re not sure the poor guy will be able to forgive himself any time soon.
Topics: Technology, News, Art
Abbi Murray