John Reed Stark, a former SEC official, labeled a recent attack on NFT Trader, a peer-to-peer trading platform, that led to the loss of some Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collections as a “tragedy of epic proportions . ”
The NFT Trader Attack
The attack gave the perpetrator access to initiate an unauthorized transfer of certain high-value Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), including Bored Ape and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections, World of Women NFTs, VeeFriends and Art Blocks. All told, the recorded losses amount to millions.
“Wow, I never could have imagined that a series of compromised links to the metadata of a bunch of JPEG files of stupid-looking cartoon monkeys would be so remarkably easy to hijack. This is a tragedy of epic proportions. Call Jack Reacher. Call Jack Ryan. Call Jack Bauer. Call Jack Black (he could make a movie about the devastating caper),” Stark teased in his characteristic sarcastic manner as he teased a crypto project.
He further pointed out the prevalence of such attacks in the NFT ecosystem, adding that the market is “completely manipulated.”
Interestingly, this is not the first time the ex-SEC veteran has made such a statement that deflates the ideology underlying the hype surrounding digital collectibles. In September, Stark emphasized that the market manipulation of NFTs is becoming widespread and tacitly endorsed.
Prices of NFT collections are taking a dip
Additionally, he explained that the most common prices of NFTs are between $5 and $10, implying that quite a few of these digital collectibles have dropped in value compared to when they made headlines.
Stark believes that the fraudulent activities of bad actors are encouraged and rewarded.
Ultimately, he encouraged crypto enthusiasts to stay away from NFT collections, arguing that they were a scam. Unfortunately, attacks like the recent one on NFT Trader underscore opinions like Stark’s about the digital collectibles landscape. At the same time, this has not hindered the launch of more NFT collections.
A few days ago, China’s largest telecom operator China Mobile was launched an NFT-free marketplace called LinkNFT. Popular football governing body FIFA also hinted at plans to release an NFT collection for FIFA Club World Cup Saudi Arabia 2023™ in collaboration with the Modex and Polygon Protocol.
