• The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection was targeted with an exploit on January 20th.
• FranklinIsbored, one of the biggest holders of BAYC NFTs, was targeted with an OpenSea’s stolen ApeCoin policy which allowed the attacker to sell a marked Bored Ape.
• ApeCoin, the native token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, has fallen 1.3% in value in the past 24 hours.
On January 20th, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection was targeted with an exploit that affected one of its largest holders, FranklinIsbored. The exploit took advantage of OpenSea’s stolen ApeCoin policy, which allowed an attacker to sell a marked Bored Ape. This Bored Ape was marked as “under review for suspicious activity”, which in theory should have prevented it from being sold. However, the exploit worked by using OpenSea’s “Match Advance Order” system to “Mint” and sell it to Franklin, resulting in the theft of nearly $20 million worth of Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFTs.
The theft has had an immediate effect on the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s native token, ApeCoin. In the 24 hours following the exploit, ApeCoin has fallen 1.3% in value, decreasing from its seven-day high of $5.80 to $5.71. This comes despite the fact that ApeCoin has been increasing in value over the past week, trading up 16.6% from its seven-day low of $4.95.
FranklinIsbored has been the target of this exploit for the second time this week, with the first instance occurring on January 20th. Franklin has called out OpenSea to “PLEASE fix [their] stolen ApeCoin policy”, as the flagged apes can’t be sold since they are subjected to review. These stolen assets shouldn’t have been able to be sold in the open market, and it is unclear at this time what steps OpenSea is taking to prevent similar exploits from occurring in the future.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has become increasingly popular in recent months, and the recent exploit has cast doubt upon the security of the ecosystem. As the stolen assets are unable to be sold and ApeCoin’s value has taken a hit, it is uncertain as to what will happen with the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s NFTs in the weeks and months to come.