Big Daddy Ape Club Owners Absconded With $1.3 Mln

On January 11, scammers staged one of the largest NFT scams in the history of the Solana blockchain. The scammers made off with 9,136 SOL, or about $1.3 mln, in funds sent by would-be collectors to mint the Big Daddy Ape Club NFT. The owners of the Big Daddy Ape Club project were able to abscond with funds despite the fact that the NFT drop was "verified" by decentralized identity verification company Civic. Civic now says it's working with law enforcement to find those responsible for the scam.

The Big Daddy Ape Club was introduced as a collection of 2,222 monkey-themed NFTs to be minted on the Solana blockchain and listed on the Solanart NFT marketplace. But it turned out to be a classic scam — a type of exit scam that’s all too common in crypto, where the developers suddenly leave the project and disappear with the investors’ money.

Mert, a software engineer at Coinbase and a Solana researcher said he traced the Solana scammer's wallet, and that some of the funds were transferred to accounts on the Binance crypto exchange. The exchange said it has suspended the accounts and will also be working with law enforcement to investigate.

Image: Coinphony