Someone Accidentally Sold a $300,000 NFT for $3,000 (cnet.com) 75
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most prestigious NFT collections in the world. You may scoff at the words "prestigious" and "NFT" being used so close together, but among its star-studded members are Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry and Post Malone. Right now the price of entry -- that is, the cheapest you can buy a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for -- is 52 ether, or $210,000. Which is why it's so painful to see that someone accidentally sold their Bored Ape NFT on Saturday for $3,066. Unusual trades are often a sign of funny business, as in the case of the person who spent $530 million to buy an NFT from themselves. In Saturday's case, the cause was a simple, devastating "fat-finger error." That's when people make a trade online for the wrong thing, or for the wrong amount. Here the owner, real name Max or username maxnaut, meant to list his Bored Ape for 75 ether, or around $300,000, but accidentally listed it for 0.75. One hundredth the intended price.
It was bought instantaneously. The buyer paid an extra $34,000 to speed up the transaction, ensuring no one could snap it up before them. The Bored Ape was then promptly listed for $248,000. The transaction appears to have been done by a bot, which can be coded to immediately buy NFTs listed below a certain price on behalf of their owners in order to take advantage of these exact situations. "How'd it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess," Max told me. "I list a lot of items every day and just wasn't paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 eth [$34,000] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone."
It was bought instantaneously. The buyer paid an extra $34,000 to speed up the transaction, ensuring no one could snap it up before them. The Bored Ape was then promptly listed for $248,000. The transaction appears to have been done by a bot, which can be coded to immediately buy NFTs listed below a certain price on behalf of their owners in order to take advantage of these exact situations. "How'd it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess," Max told me. "I list a lot of items every day and just wasn't paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 eth [$34,000] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone."
Insane fees! (Score:2)
Insane fees!
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That kind of gas stupidly crazy... What am I missing. 8 eth gas is just crazy. How could this not have been sniped for 1 eth or less. I guess if we are talking a bot, maybe there is some way it calculates a "sniping fee" but fuck man, that's crazy.
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the really crazy thing, no one understand a word you just wrote.
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Nothing crazy about it. He's basically ensuring he gets first in line. He's basically making a 250k profit instead of potentially 280k profit, so that he makes it less likely that he makes 0 profit.
Presumably there may be quite a few bots out there doing the same thing. When there are competing/incompatable transations in the queue, the miners would most likely pick the higher transaction fee transaction to process. If he offers 1eth transaction fee and someone else offers 2 eth, and the bots get their offe
Re:Insane fees! (Score:4, Informative)
This got me thinking about the bot's liquidity. This bot just has 8 ETH sitting around? That's an impressive amount of liquidity for use of a sniping bot. I would think plenty of people would only arm their bots with 1 or 2 ETH if that.
Re:Insane fees! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Crypto isn't "fair for the little man", crypto is fair.
Governments have been trying for thousands of years to be "fair for the little man" and it doesn't work because they're unfair completely.
This is how fair works.
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Governments have been trying for thousands of years to be "fair for the little man" and it doesn't work because they're unfair completely.
Nah, it just doesn't work in the USA where they pay lip service to the idea of being fair to the little man while actually doing the exact opposite. Not every country is like that.
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Governments have been trying for thousands of years to be "fair for the little man"
Oh yeah, it is always about the little guy. Will the affluent and wealthy ever get a break? Governments should think about what the rich want every now and then.
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when someone can manipulate their way in the validation queue by simply paying a load of money.
Economically, at least, this is fair. The alternative is something like NYSE where you have brokers who have long standing relationships (and have paid) to be able to front run trades, get early access to IPOs, and all kinds of other preferential treatment that the little guy can't buy his way into, even if he wants to.
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The unfair part is the way it has removed all the friction from everyday activities in ways that humans aren't adapted to. To a crypto-enthusiast, removing friction is the whole point. (Well, part of the point.) But in the real world, a certain amount of friction is essential. If I list a product on eBay and mistype the price, I have opportunities to fix my mistake. I'm not irrecoverably out $250,000 in a fraction of a second. It might be "economically fair", but in terms of the way real people functi
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The thing this highlights though is how unfair crypto currency is despite all the claims of it giving more power to the little man than big business when someone can manipulate their way in the validation queue by simply paying a load of money.
Let me introduce you to the world of flash trading [wikipedia.org].
This is nothing new; the stock market has been doing this for years.
And nothing of value was lost (Score:4, Funny)
Nothing of real value was lost. Idiots.
Re:And nothing of value was lost (Score:4, Interesting)
... or gained.
Fictional financial instruments on both sides of this transaction.
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... or gained.
Fictional financial instruments on both sides of this transaction.
The bot gained assuming it sold when they relisted it at $248k and they pocketed the different not put in into some other fictional asset.
Tulip bulbs (Score:3, Insightful)
Do they teach about the Tulip bulb bubble in schools anymore? Is there any reason this is not that?
Beanie Babies? (Score:2)
Or cabbage patch dolls?
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Or the South Sea bubble [wikipedia.org]
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Do they teach about the Tulip bulb bubble in schools anymore? Is there any reason this is not that?
Well, to start with, there is, and was, a finite number of tulips. Also, tulips had a use, decorative is true, but nevertheless real. So don't dare to compare tulips to NFTs. Tulips are a solid commodity in comparison with NFTs, as you can create all the NFTs you want, and they have no use that a copy of then doesn't have.
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Do they teach about the Tulip bulb bubble in schools anymore?
I'd recommend looking up Charles MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds [wikipedia.org] (it's free on Kindle). It's both funny and enlightening, and it gives a lot of historical detail for some things like the South Sea bubble, or the tulip mania. You can easily see parallels to quite a few of today's phenomena - which proves people don't need the internet to get deluded.
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Indeed all the itnernet does is help the hype build faster and spread further and when the unwind begins it helps the bubble deflate faster because news the music has stopped also spreads more quickly.
Which is one of the reason that nobody should be putting one cent in to crypto they are not equally willing to toss onto a craps table. The machines are in the game, but unlike the stock indices there are no circuit breaker rules, no provisions for reversing trades etc. People are running around like "its over
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> You can easily see parallels to quite a few of today's phenomena - which proves people don't need the internet to get deluded.
Sure, but it's so much *faster*.
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Do they teach about the Tulip bulb bubble in schools anymore? Is there any reason this is not that?
Duh, tulips are real things, not tokens. Which is why I’m proud to announce this new exclusive line of tulip bulb NFTs [businessinsider.com].
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I don't remember hearing about the tulip bubble in school. I learned about in my 40s.
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Maybe there is nothing of real value left... end game capitalism... all is nigh.
Entirely consistent (Score:4, Insightful)
Anybody buying an NFT in the first place is an idiot. Idiots do stupid things.
Re:Entirely consistent (Score:5, Insightful)
Anybody buying an NFT in the first place is an idiot. Idiots do stupid things.
Not really. This guy sounds like a day trader if he's buying and selling multiple things a day. That's not being an idiot. That's profiting off the backs of idiots.
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Well, if he sold a 300k NFT for 3k, he clearly is an idiot. Of course, idiots can profit off worse idiots. The "greater fool theory" works on that principle.
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Well, if he sold a 300k NFT for 3k, he clearly is an idiot. Of course, idiots can profit off worse idiots. The "greater fool theory" works on that principle.
Again, not really. $297k is small fry. I once cost my company well over $15m for a one line mistake in a procedure. We live, make mistakes, learn and move on. Read his reaction, does that look like the panicked words of someone who fucked up in a way that severely affected him, or more likely that kind of fat fingering is expected at some point in these people's lives.
If you think he's an idiot for what he did I almost guarantee we can find a reason to call you an idiot too, as well as every other human on
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> once cost my company well over $15m for a one line mistake in a procedure. We live, make mistakes, learn and move on.
I'm guessing it was more like "cost my company well over $15m ... move[d] on" in this particular example?
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Are you saying I was moved on? No. Kept working in the same position I was in just fine. I felt incredibly shitty though. I was quite worried when the maintenance manager called me into his office, but he did so just to give me a piece of advice: "Don't worry 5 years from now important people will remember your name and your role, but they won't remember why."
I honestly think there's some truth to that. I have been offered far more opportunities than my peers within the company. I have leapfrogged people ma
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Anybody buying an NFT in the first place is an idiot. Idiots do stupid things.
Anybody holding the bag when the high value liquidity song stops is an idiot. They couldn’t hear your insults anyway as the piles of money are too high and thick to let in much from the outside world.
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Dude made $250k in a single trade. Is he really the stupid one here? Or you jealous?
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I was talking about the one doing the selling. Of course, the one that bought is also an idiot, because he spend 3k on something worthless.
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Actually he did sell it. For 59.99 Eth.
It was then relisted for 84 Eth.
https://opensea.io/assets/0xbc... [opensea.io]
#Obvious ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Obvious money laundering is obvious.
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Do go on. I would love for you to explain better your theory in detail and how the fees induced make this a more reasonable manner of money laundering than others Give me the breakdown, oh wise one.
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Do go on. I would love for you to explain better your theory in detail and how the fees induced make this a more reasonable manner of money laundering than others Give me the breakdown, oh wise one.
I think the poster was talking about NFTs (and their valuation) is driven largely by money laundering, rather than this transaction specifically.
Now I don't think laundering drives most of the valuation... but it's certainly a factor.
As to how it works... take your dirty drug money and use it to buy a bunch of cryptocurrency attached to an address you have nothing to do with.
Next, with your official "investor" address buy an NFT and put it up for auction with a big markup. Suddenly your second address decid
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And to think I have no mod points...
And . . (Score:1)
We're supposed to feel bad for this guy?
Painful? (Score:2)
Not the word I would use to describe this fumble. There are 2 people out of 8billion+ who give a shit about this. The person who failed at basic numbers and the person who still wasted $3,000 on nothing of value.
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Not the word I would use to describe this fumble. There are 2 people out of 8billion+ who give a shit about this. The person who failed at basic numbers and the person who still wasted $3,000 on nothing of value.
In this case, the person didn't waste the $3000 as they immediately turned around and sold it to another sucker for $248k.
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...after paying $34,000 in fees. Just as with all gambling from Vegas to Wall Street, the only one who wins on every bit is the house.
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> Vegas Casino lets you become part of the house and pays you for helping them to operate?
All of them. Apply for a job.
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Did they actually sell it? The summary didn't say.
The "Bored Ape Yacht Club" (Score:3)
Amazon Camera Gear Bonanza (Score:4, Interesting)
Reminds me of last year when Amazon accidently listed a whole bunch of expensive pieces of camera gear at 1/100th of their actual price.
They honoured it too.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/oop... [pcmag.com]
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Yeah, except that those items have actual value in the physical world. These NFT's? Not so much. It's like having Epic battle gear in World Of Warcraft... good for digital bragging rights, not really worth much for anything else.
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Well if they give your character hard to get perks otherwise the gear is valuable. If you are spending your time in WoW anyways might as well be winning. NFTs though really don't get. You "own" something everyone else has free access to. I might as well "own" some porn I downloaded. Sure you can see it too but I "own" it so my spank the monkey time is more worthy than yours.
More than its worth (Score:2)
A fool and his money.... (Score:2)
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Not bad for a $3 item (Score:2)
When people want to inflate values of things so much it's just so tempting to make the entire tax system based on your worth - and count your worth as whatever dumb amount of money you are willing to bay for bogus crap like this.
Painful? (Score:2)
I think you meant delicious.
Overpaid (Score:2)
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It may not even be that. First, it most likely doesn't exist physically, although owners have been known to print them on items. Second, it may be algorithmically generated. ie, there's a program that takes the basic ape template and tacks on various features as if it were Mr. Potato Head, then renders it out. In any event, the actual image is not on the blockchain. That's too expensive. What's on the chain is a number, maybe 64 or 128 bits where each bit either represents a "characteristic" defined s
I don't think so! (Score:2)
Alternative Headline (Score:1)
Or, Some bizarrely value NFT sold for $3,000 at $300,000
JPG's for sale (Score:1)
Feature not bug (Score:2)
You wanted transactions outside the secure and reversible system of "The Man". Welcome to the jungle.
Maybe call customer service? Haha!
Everything about this fucking story is so stupid (Score:2)
So, unless i'm missing anything, we have:
* Some guy basically giving away his virtual asset, because reversible transactions are apparently a sin now.
* That same guy losing $250,000 in single a monkey jpeg trade.
* NFT flash trading with bots
* 14% in "gas fees" to beat the queue, because hey, DeFi
* The NFT being immediately re-listed at a ridiculous price. Did it even sell after that?
It's really getting hard to argue how this is not a modern Tulip mania by this point.
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> It's really getting hard to argue how this is not a modern Tulip mania by this point.
I don't think there was a lot of money laundering potential in the tulip case.
Not an accident (Score:2)
The buyer overpaid (Score:2)
haha
Right Click (Score:1)