Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT’s Efforts Lead to Prosecution of Alleged Bored Ape NFT Scammers

Linh Nguyen — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 07:52:58 +0000

@ Crypto Insider

The phishing scam, where people were defrauded out of millions of dollars worth of NFTs, was brought to light in August.

Five people connected to the phishing scam involving the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection were indicted in Paris on Wednesday, months after the scam was undercover by prominent crypto sleuth ZachXBT.

Christophe Durand, the deputy head of the French National Cyber Unit, told the AFP that the investigation had started “at the end of 2021.”

The police suspect the five individuals of having formed a network that fraudulently advertised a service that would produce an animated version of any users’ BAYC non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The individuals operated out of BAYC’s official Discord channel, which lent a blanket of authenticity to their purported services.

The phishing scam required interested users to click on a link to generate an animation. But instead of animated apes, the users found the service stole their NFTs, digital assets on a blockchain that represent ownership of virtual or physical items, with the scammers managing to steal over $2.5 million in total.

ZachXBT first uncovered the crime in an August post titled “Scammers in Paris.” An online trail of the crypto funds movement at the time eventually led to the unmasking of the scammers Mathys and Camille, who the Paris police now consider central to the operation.

The duo mainly targeted BAYC collections, but also seemed to have phished holders of Azuki and Doodles, two other popular NFT collections.

Meanwhile, the Paris police said the five individuals were born between 1998 and 2003 and lived in Paris, Caen and Tours. The parents of one of them were also initially indicted but later released without prosecution.

Among the five, two are suspected of having made the site and the marketing, and three others are said to have done the advertising and the money laundering operations.

The post Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT’s Efforts Lead to Prosecution of Alleged Bored Ape NFT Scammers appeared first on Crypto Insider.

ApeCoin Futures See $36M in Liquidations After Volatile Trading

Linh Nguyen — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:22:06 +0000

@ Crypto Insider

The tokens surged and sank as new features in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem went live.

Futures tracking ApeCoin’s APE tokens lost about $36 million in liquidations during a volatile 24 hours, data show.

Liquidations in the crypto market occur when a trader has insufficient funds to fund a margin call, which is when an exchange asks for extra collateral to keep the trading position funded.

APE prices jumped to more than $27.50 on Thursday evening from $19 on Wednesday, before profit-taking saw the tokens decline to as low as $20.48 in Asian morning hours on Friday. Such movement occurred in an otherwise little-changed crypto market, with bitcoin and ether moving just 2% in the past 24 hours.

APE has more than doubled from mid-April’s levels around $11, with the volatility leading to an increase in trading volume on the token’s futures. Liquidations have increased in parallel: APE futures have racked up millions of dollars in losses – higher than usual – for their traders several times in the past weeks.

Thursday’s volatility came as virtual pockets of land went on sale on the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, confirming rumors from last week. The land was sold exclusively for APE through a Dutch auction, which probably drove APE prices up.

Most of the liquidations on APE in the past hours arose from short traders, or those betting against higher prices. Some $24.88 million worth of shorts were liquidated, data show, compared with $11 million in longs.

Crypto exchange OKX saw $10 million in liquidations, the most among all exchanges, followed by Binance at $9 million and Bybit at $7.98 million.

The higher-than-usual liquidation activity on APE was comparable to $37 million on ether futures, making them one of the most traded crypto futures in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin futures, however, continued to lead with in excess of $66.29 million.

The post ApeCoin Futures See $36M in Liquidations After Volatile Trading appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Archives - Crypto Insider

Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT’s Efforts Lead to Prosecution of Alleged Bored Ape NFT Scammers

The phishing scam, where people were defrauded out of millions of dollars worth of NFTs, was brought to light in August.

ApeCoin Futures See $36M in Liquidations After Volatile Trading

The tokens surged and sank as new features in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem went live.