NFT trader’s $1.5 million bot chess move
YouTuber and nonfungible token (NFT) trader Hanwe Chang said he scored 800 Ether (ETH), about $1.5 million, by tricking a rival trader’s bot into buying his own inflated NFTs.
In an August 5 post from X (Twitter), Chang said he noticed a bot copying his bids on the NFT marketplace Blur and decided to trick them.
An NFT-focused account A Raving Ape speculated that Chang bought several Azuki NFTs with the same background color from a separate, anonymous wallet.
Context on how @HanweChang executed a plan to perfection and earned 800e by selling “Off White A – Background Color” azuki for 50e each and azuki elementals for 15e each.
This is an epic case of PvP in today’s NFT trading market ⚔️
Hanwe is rolling out in the top spot of… pic.twitter.com/M8Ujm8CquJ
— A-Raving-Ape.eth (@a_raving_ape) August 5, 2023
Knowing that bots were copying his trades, Chang overbid for the NFTs in his anonymous wallet from his widely known hanwe.eth wallet.
After a bot automatically copied the overbid, Chang accepted it from his anonymous wallet and was able to issue the NFTs at a significant markup.
Apparently, the owner of the bot, known as elizab.eth, responded to Chang’s post, claiming the money was stolen and offering to discuss a 10% premium if the money was returned.
We would like to discuss a bounty with you. We offer a bounty of 10% of all funds stolen from our bot, which you get to keep if you return the remaining 90%.
— elizab.eth ᅠᅠ (@ThinkingETH) August 5, 2023
Chang’s on-chain move sparked debate over its legality.
Lawyer Gabriel Shapiro said he thinks elizab.eth “could have good legal claims” to get their ETH back from Chang’s ploy — but only if they hire a skilled litigator.
NFT volumes almost halve in July
NFT volumes have continued to decline in the ongoing bear market, dropping by nearly half in July.
Figures from NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam show US dollar sales volume fell nearly 42% in July, starting the month with $22 million in daily volume before falling to $12.8 million on July 31.
Weekly NFT sales with black line showing sales volume in US dollars. Source: Crypto Slam!
The July decline comes after a significant rally in late June, where daily sales volumes peaked at nearly $58.5 million on June 27, the largest trading day since the March 16 mark of $61.9 million.
Royalties from NFTs are also caustic makers. A July 25 report from Nansen said that of the 699,816 ETH in royalties paid to NFT projects, only 9.4% was the figure in the first half of 2023.
Nansen said the effective royalty compensation rate has been on a significant downward trend – average royalties in 2022 were 2.5%, which had dropped to 0.6% as of July 2023, a drop from 98%.
Slow month for NFT thefts
On the other hand, NFT-related thefts have seen their slowest month in 2023.
Figures from blockchain security firm PeckShield shared on Aug. 6 show that approximately $1.7 million worth of NFTs were stolen in July. The figure marks a 31% drop from June.
PeckShield said half of stolen NFTs were sold within less than three hours, or 165 minutes, on marketplaces like Blur and OpenSea of being caught.
#PeckShieldAlert ~$1.73 million worth of #NFTs were stolen in July 2023, down 31% from the previous month. Within a span of 165 minutes, half of the stolen NFTs were promptly sold on various marketplaces. The percentage of stolen NFTs initially sold on @blur_io… pic.twitter.com/cknseppfwe
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) Aug 6, 2023
Blur had the highest number of stolen NFTs sold, with more than 67%, while OpenSea had sold just under 20% through its platform, PeckShield claimed.
Through the end of July, just over $41.5 million worth of NFTs have been stolen in 2023. February was the biggest month for NFT thieves, where they stole $16.2 million worth of tokens.
Gary Vee’s NFT project also steps into the sneaker trend
VeeFriend’s, the NFT project of entrepreneur and internet executive Gary Vaynerchuck, has joined the latest craze of NFT-related sneakers.
On August 4, VeeFriend’s announced it was teaming up with Reebok to launch a limited edition sneaker available only to those who own an alpaca-related NFT as part of the collection.
Dreamers, let’s do this. We’re proud to introduce the VeeFriends x @reebok Aspiring Alpaca Classic Nylon, the shoe you take everywhere. pic.twitter.com/DHsvMdHPGR
— VeeFriends (@veefriends) August 3, 2023
The shoe looks like any other, except for a few changes. The tongue of the shoe shows the original hand-drawn version of VeeFriend’s alpaca NFT and the NFT project logo appears in place of Reebok’s.
It is the third sneaker NFT project in recent weeks. At the end of June, Dior launched a new line of sneakers that offered an NFT replica and NFTs were embedded in Puma’s recent sneaker collection.
Other useful news
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has finally caught on to criminals hijacking social media accounts and impersonating legitimate NFT and cryptospace figures, and posted a warning about the trend on Aug. 4.
NFT protocol JPEG’d confirmed that 5,495 ETH worth approximately $10 million had been returned by the Curve Finance hacker, receiving a bounty of 610.6 ETH or $1.1 million.