Hollywood personality Seth Green’s Bored Ape, which was stolen in a phishing attack on May 17, is back home.
According to media reports, Green paid 165 Ether, or about $300,000 at the current rate, for the return of the precious NFT.
BAYC#8398 is Back Home: Green
“Fred is back home,” Seth Green replied on Twitter Spaces when asked about his stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT.
Green had renamed BAYC #8398 to Fred Simian and he was featured as the cartoon’s protagonist in his next show – White Horse Tavern. A trailer first shown at Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT convention featured Bored Ape #8398 as the star of the series.
Since the NFT was stolen, Green lost the right to use it in his show. There was a lot of interest and speculation about the motive behind the heist.
“I bought this monkey in July 2021 and have spent the last few months developing and exploiting the IP to make it the star of this show,” Green told entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk during a talk. NFT in May.
Bringing Fred Simian Home
On May 17, Green tweeted that he had lost 4 NFTs to a phishing attack. The stolen digital artworks included Doodles, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Bored Ape Yacht Club.
On May 25, the Hollywood actor-director tweeted to inform that he was able to identify and contact the NFT collector, Mr. Cheese, who held his stolen Bored Ape. He asked Mr. Cheese to return the NFT and also threatened legal action if they did not.
Mr. Cheesem, also going by the moniker DarkWing84, said they had no intention to return the Bored Ape NFT that they bought for $200k. They also claimed to be completely unaware that the Bored Ape NFT was illicitly obtained.
Blockchain transactions
The return of Bored Ape #8398 was first reported on Thursday based on certain blockchain transactions involving the item. He claimed blockchain records show Green sent 165 Ether to Mr. Cheese for the return of BAYC #8398.
The transfer of the NFT from Mr. Cheese’s wallet to Green’s account reportedly took place through a crypto escrow platform called NFT Trading. Apparently, the actor paid 165 Ether from the same wallet that he had used to buy the Bored Ape. Minutes after he transferred the coins, they showed up in a wallet linked to DarkWing84, believed to be Mr. Cheese.
NFT ownership debate
The theft of BAYC#8398 sparked a debate over intellectual property rights and ownership of NFT in relevant circles. There has been a lot of buzz and speculation about what will happen to BAYC and Green’s next show where the NFT was the main character.
In another case, the Singapore court froze the sale of a Bored Ape (#2162), used as collateral for a loan from a lender on the NFTfi platform. When the borrower couldn’t repay the loan on maturity, the lender took ownership of the NFT. However, the court blocked its sale until the ownership issue is resolved.
