Last night, a victim of hacking or social engineering (it is unclear based on what little information was provided in the tweet), Todd Kramer, an Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) owner lost approximately $2,200,000 USD worth of NFTs in the collection from his Meta Mask wallet.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a very popular collection and has an estimated sales volume of 296,000 ETH (1.1 Billion USD. PS, average price of ETH $4,000 used for this estimation).
Crypto and NFT theft crime continues to grow as the crypto industry grows each month. Although some safeguards have been put in place, such as information campaigns produced by various NFT and crypto groups and DAOs, social engineering crimes and computer hacks are still prevalent. As they become more sophisticated, it is ever more important to stay informed about the latest scams and tricks used by these criminals.
The interesting part about this episode is, OpenSea was contacted by a distraught Todd Kramer -- and they effectively froze the NFTs that were stolen. This has led to controversy and anger among Ethereum communities as a centralized marketplace like Opensea has shattered the trustless principles of crypto. A centralized party should not and cannot have the ability to disable crypto or NFTs. For a marketplace to step in on behalf of a user is like overriding the constitution to help a friend in need. Trustless transactions on blockchain, ruled by unchangeable code, is true decentralization. But what OpenSea has purportedly done is shatter that trustless environment and stepped in as a centralized Federal Reserve-like authority.
Who knows what the outcome of this controversy will be? It may be possible OpenSea will lose many of its avid users and staunchest supporters. It may also be possible that other marketplaces will act even more centralized, nullifying the primary tenets of crypto.