Yuga Labs Recovers Stolen Apes with 120 ETH Bounty

• The NFT Trader exploit has ended after a bounty payment.
• The bounty came from Yuga Labs co-founder.
• The hacker requested a certain percentage of the loot to return the stolen apes.

The Boring Security DAO has managed to recover the recently stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) nonfungible tokens ( NFTs ) following a bounty payment to the hacker.

On December 16, the peer-to-peer trading platform NFT Trader was exploited, leading to the theft of nearly $3 million of NFTs. Stating that they were “a good person” with limited technical skills, the hacker requested a bounty payment in exchange for the loot.

Yuga Labs Co-Founder Pays the Bounty

Less than 24 hours following the attack, a community initiative led by the Boring Security DAO initiated a recovery process. At the hacker’s request, the DAO facilitated a bounty payment of 120 Ether (ETH), worth about $260,764 at press time.

This was after the hacker detailed how they wanted compensation for their “work.”

The Boring Security DAO confirmed the recovery news on X (Twitter), noting that the hacker collected 10% of the floor price of 36 BAYC and 18 MAYC as a bounty.

Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano reportedly paid the bounty. Yuga Labs created the BAYC and MAYC NFT collections and contributed to the recovery negotiations. The creator also saw that the tokens were returned to the original owners for free.

Stay updated on Animoca Brands’ ApeCoin accelerator program:
Animoca Brands Launches ApeCoin Accelerator Program via Forj

Read how an exploit resulted in fake NFT sales on Magic Eden earlier in the year:
‘Massive’ Exploit Leads to Fake NFT Sales on Magic Eden, Will Refund Affected Users