Uninformed cryptocurrency users are not the only ones falling victim to fraudulent attacks, seasoned founders and creators like Kevin Rose, who is the co-founder of Moonbirds have also fallen prey. The Non-fungible token (NFT) collection founder attested to the fact that his Ethereum (ETH) wallet has been exploited and more than $1.1 million worth of his NFTs have been stolen.
The hack which was first noticed by one Twitter user who goes by the name CirrusNFT emptied Rose’s ETH wallet of 40 NFTs including 25 Chromie Squiggles from the Art Blocks project, Cool Cats, OnChainMonkeys, and an Autoglyphs NFT from the original CryptoPunks creator Larva Labs. He advised his over 1.6 million Twitter followers to avoid purchasing any Squiggles NFTs until they have been flagged as stolen.
Each of the Chromie Squiggles has a floor price value of about 13.3 ETH approximately $20,715. While an Autoglyph on the OpenSea marketplace is around 315 ETH equivalent to $491,000.
Kevin Rose Signed a Malicious Signature
The Vice President of Engineering at Proof identified as Arran on Twitter explained how the hack was perpetrated. According to Arran, “This was a classic piece of social engineering, tricking KRO into a false sense of security. The technical aspect of the hack was limited to crafting signatures accepted by OpenSea’s marketplace contract.”
Additionally, he explained that assets that belong to Proof were unaffected by the breach citing that a significant amount of these assets require multiple approvals before access can be granted. The anti-fraud of NFT marketplace OpenSea and hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has been contacted as well as legal experts to look into the attack.
As it stands, OpenSea has flagged the NFTs, therefore, they cannot be sold on its marketplace. This leaves the bad actors with the option of either transferring the digital collectibles or selling them on another platform.
Based on a tweet by pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, the same hacker responsible for Rose’s loss has equally exploited another victim. This time around, the hacker made away with digital assets valued at 75 ETH ($121,000) which he later converted to Bitcoin (BTC).
