Quick take:
- Bored Ape Yacht Club has told its community not to mint anything today.
- The company said the BAYC Instagram account may have been hacked.
- This is not the first time the community’s social channels have been hacked, its discord channel was briefly compromised on April 1.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club community has been warned not to mint anything today, April 25 amid fears the NFT collection’s Instagram account may have been hacked. The BAYC Twitter account posted on Monday saying:
“There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.”
However, while the warning may have saved unsuspecting NFT enthusiasts from becoming victims of another malicious attack on crypto, some BAYC fans were not impressed by the community’s security protocols.
One Twitter user @timkimm wrote: “This is irresponsible, you’re not a small project.
You’re risking your community’s money at this point.”
The user was pointing to BAYC’s Discord channel, which was hacked on April 1, 2022.
However, not everyone was on board with the idea that BAYC is resting on its laurels on matters concerning security.
The @NiceNFT account replied saying “Instagram accounts can be hacked even with 2FA and no mobile numbers linked and ig help support sucks so bad they don’t even reply anymore.”
Following a series of questions from the community, the BAYC co-founder said in a Twitter post that the “IG hack resulted in 4 Apes, 6 Mutants, 3 Kennels, and some other assorted valuable NFTs being lost.”
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection is arguably Yuga Labs’ biggest commodity even given its recent acquisition of Cryptopunks from Larva Labs.
The company is working on the Otherside metaverse, set for launch on April 30, 2022, which will encompass among others things, gaming, experiential, and NFT products.
In March, Yuga Labs introduced a new Know Your Customer (KYC) protocol which was met with strong resistance from the community. However, the company maintained this was necessary for the bug steps it is taking to become more than just an NFT project offering collectibles.
Yuga Labs has partnered with some of the leading blockchain companies to make its plans come to fruition, including Animoca Brands, which is one of the key investors. The Honk Kong-based Web3 venture is spearheading the open metaverse campaign, which it also believes will lean on strong KYCs to succeed.
Therefore, although Yuga’s fears of the BAYC Instagram account hack may cause some community backlash, it seems to be on the right track to strengthening the security protocols of its platforms.
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