On December 17th, a major hack targeted the NFT Trader platform, resulting in the theft of millions of dollars worth of high-value NFTs, including Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), World of Women NFTs, VeeFriends, Art Blocks, and more.
Shortly after the incident, NFT Trader confirmed the hack and explained that their “old smart contracts” had been compromised. They urged users to revoke any permissions they had granted to these smart contracts in the past.
While the smart contract issue has been resolved, users still suffered losses, and efforts are underway to contact the hacker in an attempt to recover the stolen assets.
The hacker, on the other hand, claimed in an on-chain message that the attack was aimed at preventing another hacker’s actions. Additionally, the hacker proposed returning NFTs to victims if they paid a ransom of 3 ETH for each BAYC and 0.6 ETH for each MAYC. However, it appears that the attacker “accidentally” returned a BAYC along with 31 ETH to one user and returned some other BAYC to their rightful owners without receiving any ransom.
Notably, on the same day, shortly after the NFT Trader hack, the NFT Flooring Protocol project also fell victim to a similar incident, resulting in losses of $1.54 million, including 16 BAYC and 36 Pudgy Penguins.
These two hacking incidents have sparked a series of copycat hacks, causing numerous NFTs like Cool Cats and Squiggles to disappear from users’ wallets.