Art Collector Loses Over $2M NFTs Overnight, Says 'All My Apes Gone'

A New York-based art collector lost over $2 million worth of NFTs (non-fungible token) overnight, he revealed in a series of now-deleted tweets on Dec. 30.

Todd Kramer, the owner of Ross+Kramer Gallery, took to Twitter and said, “I have been hacked, all my apes [have] gone." He described the night as the "worst of his life".

In what is believed to be a phishing scam, Kramer lost 15 NFTs which were from highly priced Bored Apes Yacht Club and Mutants Ape Yacht Club.

As per reports, the NFT marketplace OpenSea later intervened by preventing further trade on the items. The intervention, however, did not help him much.

A few hours after the post, Kramer wrote, in a tweet that has also been deleted, “Update.. All Apes are frozen,. Waiting for opensea team to get in,,,lessons learned. Use a hard wallet…”

The incident adds to a string of high-profile cases highlighting the vulnerability of buyers in a largely unregulated market, including the theft of the Bored Ape tokens from a collector in November.

Phishing scams have become increasingly frequent as NFTs are becoming more and more valuable. However, most users have shifted to using hard wallets, which are physical and connect to the internet only when plugged in and engaged.