Famous actor and comedian Bill Murray started a real bidding war on the evening of Wednesday, August 31st, when his charity-focused NFT, portraying the actor in a black and white background wearing 3D glasses, sold for a whopping 119.2 ETH (worth approximately $185,000 USD). In spite of the hype on Twitter and Murray’s good intentions, the funds raised by the portrait NFT were hijacked from the actor’s Ethereum (ETH) wallet just hours after the charity event ended on September 1st.
Coming off a wonderful high from @ScoopFlow's generosity, to a very sad moment last night. The hackers didn’t steal from just Bill Murray, they stole from Evelyn. We're doubling down on charity and asset protection. https://t.co/WTgzSzUPGw
— Gavin Gillas (@gavingillas) September 2, 2022
800 NFTs Exposed in the Hack Attack
The Chive and blockchain startup Project Venkman partnered up to bring 1,000 NFTs based on iconic moments from Bill Murray’s career to life. Best known for his roles in ‘Groundhog Day‘ (1993), ‘Lost In Translation‘ (2003) and ‘Ghostbusters’ (1984), the actor & comedian has amassed a lot of inspiring moments to share with NFT enthusiasts and film lovers.
However, with ‘The Shack’, the 1,000 Bill Murray NFT collection set to be released next week, the actor has been forced to battle some serious security issues. According to NFTHerder, a crypto enthusiast, who took to Twitter to explain the incident in detail, revealed that 800 of the 1,000 NFTs were exposed during the attack, but the business partners managed to step in on time to transfer the NFTs to safe storage.
Today a hacker stole $174K from Bill Murray's charity nft project 😠 So what happened next?
— OKHotshot (@NFTherder) September 2, 2022
Hacker swapped majority through 1inch then sent everything to 0xada then sent it to Binance, HitBTC and FixedFloat (didn't use TornadoCash) 👇 pic.twitter.com/IeKryS4eGY
A Story with a Happy Ending
Despite the theft of 119.2 Wrapped Ethereum (wETH), the story has a bright ending. Soon after the hack went public, mishap72, a Twitter user who was also the runner-up in the charity auction, donated 120 Ethereum (ETH) to replace the looted funds. The funds will be donated to help obtain care for Evelyn, a three year old girl who suffers from a rare CLDN5 gene mutation, as well as severe epilepsy. The Chive also opened up a GoFundMe campaign to further aid the charitable cause.
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Although the legendary actor regained the charity funds, the business partners emphasized the importance of making the case public: “Given the nature of this theft, we decided not to sweep this under the rug. We need to be as transparent as possible about what happened” Co-Founder of The Chive John Resig stated firmly.
Are you ready for the FINAL ROUND? We are dropping 700 BRAND NEW Bill Murray NFTs on September 7th! Click here to get a reminder so you don't miss out! 🥳https://t.co/xlC5KfKAaP pic.twitter.com/0nOTWqcGh9
— The Shack (@EnterTheShack_) September 1, 2022
On the Flipside
- The series of events raises questions about the state of security in the NFT community. With the arrest of the Tornado Cash developers, hackers are finding new ways to commit fraud. In this particular case, Coinbase and the Ronin Bridge were used to fund the hacker’s wallet.
Why You Should Care
American blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis is carrying out an ongoing investigation into the hack. At press time, there are no suspects, but crypto analysts claim that the culprit was not from the United States.
Read more about the ongoing NFT market beatdown, as OpenSea’s trade volume dropped to a yearly low.
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Find out how actor Seth Green managed to reclaim his stolen Bored Ape.
