According to a report published on August 24 by Elliptic, a blockchains research company, this number could be underestimated because the flights of “non-fungible token”, these digital certificates, are not all made public.
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NFT sales (non-fungible token), these digital certificates registered in the blockchain, a technology intended to guarantee the safety of transactions, and backed by a photo, a text or a video, may have plunged 75 % in the first quarter of 2022, the appetite of thieves does not weaken. According to a report published on August 24 by Elliptic, a blockchains research company, more than $ 100 million (100.3 million euros) of NFT were stolen in one year. In July, no less than 4,600 NFT were volatilized. A figure probably underestimated because the most minor flights are rarely made public.
According to Elliptic, the market place Opensea even advised its community to deactivate direct discord messaging due to a “overabundance of crooks”. Digital robbers mainly target the most popular NFT. The flights of “Bored Apes Yacht Club”, these images of jaded primates generated randomly by an algorithm so as to give each a slight singularity, its “mutant” variant, but also the series “Azuki”, avatars drawn manga, A declination of the same order called “Clone X”, as well as the plots in the Otherside metavers, represent two thirds of the crimes.
In December 2021, New York art merchant Todd Kramer said on Twitter that he was stripped of fifteen “Bored Apes”. Four months later, it was the Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou to have one of these precious tokens stolen. Isn’t the blockchain, however, reputed to be inviolable and infalcyable? “The problem is not Blockchain technology, but bad cybersecurity habits,” said collector Brian Beccafico, before detailing beginners’ errors: “Use the same password for different sites, connect to Unsecured networks, have a virtual copy of the safety key to your portfolio on your computer when you have to have it offline … “
School of investors
One of the most common methods of phishing consists in imitating the domain name and the visual of a well-known NFT platform, playing on a similarity which can easily be confused. A few minutes of distraction, too much precipitation, and voila. Other hacks are much more sophisticated. “Hackers earn the confidence of users by pretending to be a support agent to solve a technical problem or by hacking Discord messaging or the Instagram account of a community,” adds Gaspard Broustine, project manager at Ledger, leader of The conservation of cryptocurrencies on a physical medium.
According to Elliptic, security attacks through social networks are clearly increasing, until 23 % of NFT flights. There is also a final fraudulent practice, as evokes this study: investors’ scam. Cybercriminals are launching NFT projects that have the appearance of viable investments, lift money with gullible users, before volatilizing themselves overnight with the funds collected. Goodbye calves, cows and cryptocurrencies…