The stolen non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from both the All Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), which were pilfered from the NFT Trader platform on December 16, have now been returned. The return followed the payment of a 120 ETH bounty to the hacker responsible for the theft.
Valued at nearly $3 million, the pilfered NFTs prompted the hacker to demand ransom through public messages, attributing the initial exploit to another user. The hacker demanded 30 ETH per BAYC and 6 ETH per MAYC as ransom, stating a 10% fee for their work.
Responding swiftly, a community-driven effort led by Boring Security, a Web3 security initiative funded by ApeCoin, retrieved all 36 BAYC and 18 MAYC NFTs within 24 hours of paying the bounty. At the time, the 120 ETH bounty amounted to about $267,000.
Boring Security confirmed via X (formerly Twitter) that they now possess all the NFTs previously held by the exploiter. As part of the recovery process, the team compensated the hacker with a bounty equivalent to 10% of the collections’ floor price.
The 120 ETH bounty was facilitated by Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, the entity behind both NFT collections. Yuga Labs mediated negotiations to reclaim the stolen tokens and ensured their return to the rightful owners, without any charge.
