The theft of more than 2 million dollars in NFT unleashes the controversy crypto (and the joking in networks)

These are 16 of the most sought-after digital avatars in the world and measures have already been taken to solve it, something that the crypto world considers goes against the philosophy of these environments, which rejects centralized interventions

Toddkramer has had 16 digital avatars stolen. It would be a trivial anecdote that could be solved by duplicating those images, if it weren't for some of the world's most sought-after NFTs ('non-fungible tokens'), the Bored Ape and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections, as well as a Cloonex. Media specialized in cryptocurrencies estimate that the total value of the stolen files is around 600 ethers, the cryptocurrency of Ethereum, something that translates to about 2.2 million euros, according to the calculations of the specialized media 'Cointelegraph'. As the affected person, a New York collector of crypto art, explained in his Twitter account, the origin of the theft is in a 'phishing' attack. This means that he interacted on a false page —believing it to be the original one—, so that the intruders managed to impersonate his identity and make a sale and purchase in his name. This is how they managed to access the 'hot wallet', a digital wallet that allows different operations with the cryptocurrencies owned by the user.

"Lesson learned: you have to use a 'hard wallet", Toddkramer has written, referring to physical wallets that fulfill this same function and are more secure, since they are not available on the internet, but rather have to be plugged into the computer and approved manually each transaction.

If you do not know what an NFT is, think of them as an accreditation to identify and authenticate the ownership of a certain digital element, be it a newspaper article, a video or, as it is the case, some pictures of monkeys. These are minted - that is, registered - using 'blockchain' technology and acquire a market value that fluctuates according to supply and demand, similar to what a stock market could be.

In the robbery, eight NFTs have been stolen from the original collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club, which is the most valued and the one that concentrates most of the robbery, since these pieces are valued at 497 ethers (1.88 million dollars). This user also had seven avatars taken from the spinoff series Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which are estimated to be priced at 79 ethers (about $ 300,000).

These are two of the juiciest collections on the market, which has revalued the prices of NFTs dramatically in just a few months. Each Bored Ape went on sale for $ 300 (0.08 ethers) and today the cheapest is no less than 250,000. Both NFT series are the world's top two by transaction volume in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam. In this period, the first has moved seven million dollars and the second 6.2, leaving third place for 'Axie Infinity', the crypto game par excellence.

The attraction for the buyer is not only to obtain the ownership of the monkey and its consequent speculation (although it is a great incentive for many). Having one of these NFTs also means being part of an exclusive and elite club. And this goes from obtaining free new NFTs - the Mutant Ape were one of them - that end up being worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to access to certain events or to purchases of clothes with the aesthetics of these monkeys, which are already a symbol of status in this world.

The other part of the robbery, less substantial, was an avatar of Cloonex that seems to have already been recovered. Carl Pei, co-founder of One Plus, alerted Toddkramer that he had bought it for 17 ehthers ($ 65,000) and made himself available to him to solve this part of the mess.

The crypto controversy is served

"I have been hacked. Please help," this collector wrote on his social networks, where he mentioned some people in charge of OpenSea, the 'marketplace' where the stolen monkeys were being sold. For now, this platform has frozen avatars. For some, this means taking them off the market, losing their value and making it easier for them to return to Troddkramer. Instead, others point out that they could be sold in any other NFT market.

Outside of the crypto world, it is normal for such an intervention to seem logical, but OpenSea's decision has not been well seen from the inside and has rekindled an unresolved debate: what to do about NFT thefts? The most enthusiastic about this digital environment consider that what happened in this case is an interference by an actor on a market that, they defend, should be completely decentralized, and this action is just the opposite.

"You have shown us the true face of Ethereum. It is another centralized totalitarian slavery system. A tool of oppression and corruption, no different from what was written in the 'Communist Manifesto' or 'My Struggle'. It represents everything that bitcoin came from. to destroy ", has disfigured a 'bitcoiner' account. Others have been softer: "So since you screwed up, now buyers have frozen assets? I don't like that OpenSea can do this. I'm sorry for you, but we all need to take responsibility for our actions in the new world of business. Web3 ".

"We have your JPG"

Toddkramer, the one affected by the robbery, has already deleted most of the tweets in which he told his story. The reason? The joke had become widespread. "Twitter is ruthless," he wrote in a post that he also deleted shortly thereafter. "Shouldn't you change your profile picture? It seems a bit disrespectful to whoever the new owner is," a tweeter ironized, since the image is practically identical for both the owner and the rest: it is in the certification of the property where is the key. Pulling this thread, there are those who have gone a little further and have even dedicated a poster: "We have your JPG."

It is not the only robbery story (or simply bizarre) that has surrounded the NFTs this year, which has been when they have become known to the general public, reaching their peak. For example, a few weeks ago, the owner of one of Bored Ape's NFTs made the wrong asking price. Instead of 75 ethereums ($ 300,000), he misplaced the comma and set it at 0.75 ($ 3,000), which was already 10 times what it cost him, but far from the pitch he had planned. He barely had time to repair the bug: a 'bot' prepared to sign bargains took the monkey in seconds.

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