Ex SEC Veteran Labels Latest BAYC Theft a “Tragedy of Epic Proportions”

John Reed Stark, a former SEC official, tagged a recent attack on NFT Trader, a peer-to-peer trading platform, which 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-end Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) including Bored Ape and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections, World of Women NFTs, VeeFriends, and Art Blocks. Altogether, the losses recorded are in the tune of millions. 

“Wow, I never would have guessed that a series of fractionalized links to the meta data of a bunch of JPEG files of stupid looking cartoon apes were 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 when bantering a crypto project.

He went on to point out the prevalence of such attacks in the NFT ecosystem, adding that the marketplace is “totally rigged.” 

Notably, this is not the first time the ex-SEC veteran has made such an utterance that deflates the ideology underlying the hype around digital collectibles. In September, Stark highlighted that the market manipulation of NFTs is becoming widespread in addition to becoming tacitly endorsed. 

Prices of NFT Collections Takes a Plunge

Furthermore, he explained that the most common prices of NFTs fall between the range of $5 to $10, implying that quite a number of these digital collectibles have plunged in terms of their value compared to when they made headlines. 

Stark believes that the fraudulent activities of bad actors are being encouraged as it is being rewarded.

In the end, he encouraged crypto enthusiasts to stay away from NFT collections, citing that they are scams. Sadly, attacks like the recent one on NFT Trader underscore opinions like that of Stark about the digital collectibles landscape. At the same time, it has not hindered the launch of more NFT collections.

A few days ago, China’s largest telecom operator China Mobile launched an NFT-free market dubbed 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 Modex and Polygon protocol.