Texas resident Timothy McKimmy is accusing decentralized marketplace OpenSea of negligence in lawsuit over a recent exploit that resulted in the loss of his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
What Happened: According to a complaint filed Feb. 18, McKimmy is seeking damages equivalent to the valuation of the Bored Ape and/or monetary compensation of over $1 million.
McKimmy claims that he never listed his Bored Ape #3475 for sale; however, last week, a hacker managed to exploit a bug on the OpenSea platform and gain access to his NFT. The hacker then proceeded to sell it to another party for a price of 0.01 Wrapped Ethereum (CRYPTO: WETH) or just $26 at the time.
The new buyer then immediately resold the Bored Ape for 99 Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) which equates to over $250,000 at current prices. The asset is currently listed for sale on OpenSea for 225 ETH or $567,000.
Why It Matters: The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 NFTs and is known to be one of the most exclusive sets of digital collectibles in the space. For context, data from OpenSea shows that the least expensive Bored Ape NFT costs 91.9 ETH or $230,000.
Some Bored Apes have a significantly higher value than others based on the rarity of their characteristics. McKimmy said his Bored Ape has a rarity score of 138.52, whereas Justin Bieber’s Bored Ape only has a rarity score of 53.66.
Seeing as Bieber acquired his NFT for $1.3 million, Mckimmy believes that his Bored Ape’s value is “arguably in the millions of dollars.”
"Instead of shutting down its platform to address and rectify these security issues, defendant continued to operate. Defendant risked the security of its users’ NFTs and digital vaults to continue collecting 2.5% of every transaction uninterrupted," the complaint alleges.
