Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC]: Latest Target For Hackers?

Saif Naqvi

Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou just confirmed that his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT was ‘stolen’, soon after BAYC’s official Discord Servers were compromised.

Source: Twitter

Via a post shared on Instagram, singer Jay Chou said that his BAYC NFT #3738 was stolen. Blockchain activity trackers Etherscan showed that the missing goods included a BAYC, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and two Doodles.

Source: Twitter

Blockchain security firm SlowMist reflected that the loss was most likely due to a phishing attack after Chou’s wallet address signed an authorization transaction to approve the NFT transfer. The firm also added that the stolen items were sold on NFT marketplaces OpenSea and, LooksRare for a total of 169.6 ETH, worth around $557,136 as per ETH’s press time level.

BAYC Under-Siege?

Source: Twitter

The latest theft scandal comes soon after the BAYC Discord server was attacked, resulting in the loss of Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT #8662. The project’s official Twitter handle recommended users stop minting on Discord saying,

“STAY SAFE. Do not mint anything from any Discord right now. A webhook in our Discord was briefly compromised. We caught it immediately but please know: we are not doing any April Fools stealth mints / airdrops etc. Other Discords are also being attacked right now.”

Headed by Yuga Labs, BAYC is the most valuable NFT collection in the world, with total a market cap of $3.6 Billion. As per OpenSea, the floor price for a single BAYC NFT stood at 110.69 ETH ($363,616). The collection’s spike in popularity prompted the launch of its very first native token, ApeCoin.

Crypto thefts have been on the rise recently. A couple of days ago, the Ronin Network was compromised for $615 Million in one of the largest known crypto-related hacks to date. Notably, investigator SlowMist was at the front and center of the issue after tracing the whereabouts of some of the stolen funds.