By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
The stolen items included four Bored Apes worth over $420,000 per each, six Mutant Apes, and three Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs (the latter two are official derivative projects).
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has suffered a hack attack on its Instagram account. As a result, as many as 91 NFTs, including 14 Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated NFTs, were stolen from the collection. According to data from Zerion, the NFTs are worth at least $2.8 million based on the floor prices of the respective collections.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club shared the news on Twitter on Monday morning.
🚨There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022
The hackers got access to the Instagram account of BAYC and arranged a fake distribution of NFTs, known as an airdrop. This led to users clicking on a malicious link that drained NFTs from their Ethereum (ETH) wallets. The stolen items included four Bored Apes worth over $420,000 per each, six Mutant Apes, and three Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs (the latter two are official derivative projects). In addition, the attackers stole one CloneX and items from other up-and-coming collections like EightBit, Alien Fren, and Toxic Skull Club among others.
Yuga Labs stated:
“This morning our team was alerted that the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s official Instagram account was hacked. The hacker posted a fraudulent link to a copycat of the Bored Ape Yacht Club website, where a safe transfer from attack asked users to connect their MetaMask to the scammer’s wallet in order to participate in a fake airdrop. Two-factor authentication was enabled and the security practices surrounding the IG account were tight. Yuga Labs and Instagram are currently investigating how the hacker was able to gain access to the account. We’re still investigating.”
According to Bored Ape co-founder Garga, the team is now working to establish contact with those who were affected.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Hack and Other NFT Attacks
The hack attack on Bored Ape Yacht Club is the latest in a series of attacks targeting the BAYC platform. Earlier, in April, a similar attack took place when the project’s Discord server was hacked. The hackers posted a phishing link on the Mutant Ape Kennel Club channel, presenting it as a ‘stealth NFT mint’. The link was used to steal Mutant Ape Yacht Club #8662 from one user.
Previously, in February, another attack happened. In particular, a phishing attacker posing as OpenSea stole over $3 million worth of NFTs, many of which were from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.
Notably, attackers are often targeting BAYC due to the high value of the NFTs. Therefore, the blockchain community needs to take more serious and significant steps for ensuring the interest of NFT fans across the globe.