A Bored Ape NFT was sold for $3,000 by accident —one-hundredth of its $300,000 market price. Maxnaut, the unfortunate seller, made the costly typo when listing the NFT for sale and was unable to reverse the transaction due to the unregulated nature of the crypto market.
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Bored Ape Blunder
The NFT was apparently seized by a bot programmed to search for and buy hot deals. The bot buyer paid a gas fee of $32,000 (8 ETH) to speed up the transaction and finalize the purchase on the spot.
“I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but… it was instantly sniped before I could click 'Cancel' —and just like that, $250,000 was gone,” maxnaut said.
Utter positive though he remains, maxnaut quips: “The industry is so new, bad things are going to happen whether it's your fault or the tech… Once you no longer have control of the outcome, forget and move on.”
Not The First Time
Also known as “fat-finger” errors, they are not uncommon in the world of crypto trading. As recollected by CNET, the company behind the Tether cryptocurrency almost doubled its digital coin supply when it created new coins worth $5 billion because of a typo.
“In March, BlockFi meant to send 700 Gemini Dollars to a set of customers, worth roughly $1 each, but mistakenly sent out millions of dollars worth of bitcoin instead. Last month a company erroneously paid a $24 million fee on a $100,000 transaction.”
As NFT collections become more valuable —as is the case with Bored Ape— these types of accidents have become more common over the past year.
Last August, a user made the mistake of listing a Bored Ape NFT for $26,000, well below the original price. The blunder was capitalized by a buyer who was quick enough to “steal” the asset and resold it for a whopping $150,000 after turning down the original owner’s $50,000 offer to return it.
Also, in November, a user selling a CryptoPunk NFT listed it for $19,000 instead of $19 million while the fortunate buyer later placed it on sale for $1.4 million.
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