NFTs are digital and managed by third parties so it was only inevitable that hackers would break in and stage an online heist. Now they have, robbing $1.9 million worth of ape JPEGs from a collector.
NFTs are essentially a receipt for something you buy and own digitally, like if you were to buy a gif instead of just downloading it. However, you buy it with cryptocurrency which uses an incredible amount of energy, damaging the environment. It's a growing fad that has resulted in people losing millions of dollars as, in a now-deleted Tweet, Todd Kramer stated that he clicked on a link that he believed to be an NFT dapp (not an app - it's a decentralised application). But he found himself victim to a phishing attack when 16 of his NFTs were plucked right from his collection.
"I been hacked," Kramer said. "All my apes gone. This just sold. Please help me." Kramer lost eight Bored Apes and seven Mutant Apes. What's a Mutant Ape you ask? Or didn't ask. I'll tell you, anyway. It's a Bored Ape that has been exposed to the mutant serum. What does that mean? You're on your own there. The point is that all of his apes and a Clonex NFT amounted to $1.9 million dollars. But the marketplace, OpenSea, froze the NFTs after the hackers put them back up for sale.
Some jumped to defend him like Beanie pictured above, saying that buying stolen NFTs is against the law, but many were quick to point out the holes in the system. In fact, outlawing stolen NFT purchases would undermine the blockchain and the 'proof of ownership' that comes with NFTs.
Others just ridiculed Kramer. For instance, Adam replied, "Wow, that's so shitty. I'm really sorry dude. But please change your profile picture since you no longer own it." Nonetheless, Kramer tweeted out a thank you for the support, "Lessons learned. Use a hard wallet. Never knew so many troll accounts existed. Kindness prevails and the community is really great."
However, others were unhappy more with OpenSea than anyone else, calling the freezing of the NFTs "anti-crypto", flying in the face of their de-centralised nature. But if you've forked out millions on digital JPEGs, maybe be more careful clicking links from strangers, eh?