A savvy NFT trader, Hanwe Chang, has reportedly tricked a bot into buying his Azuki NFTs at a huge markup, earning him a whopping 800 Ethereum, equivalent to $1.5 million. The incident occurred on the NFT marketplace Blur.
Hanwe Chang is a prolific trader on Blur, a gamified NFT marketplace that rewards users with tokens based on their trading activity.
Chang specializes in bidding on NFTs by trait, a practice that involves targeting NFTs that share a specific attribute, such as background color or clothing.
Chang reportedly executed a clever strategy that involved 12 Azuki NFTs. Azukis is a collection of 10,000 anime-inspired avatars that have become one of the most popular and valuable NFTs on Ethereum.
Chang had gathered the 12 Azukis in a digital wallet, and they all shared the same background color: “Off White A.”
He noticed that a bot was copying his bids on Blur, so he decided to trick the bot into buying his Azukis at an inflated price.
He then placed a bid on his NFTs for 50 Ethereum each, worth $91,500 at the time. The bot followed suit and bought all 12 Azukis for a total of 600 Ethereum, or $1.1 million.
Chang then transferred another 200 Ethereum from the wallet to his main account, labeled “hanwe.eth,” using the Ethereum Name Service.
Chang revealed his strategy on Twitter, saying, “I noticed that someone’s bot was copying my bids on Blur, so I decided to trick him.”
He also posted screenshots of the transactions and his wallet balance, showing that he had earned 800 Ethereum/$1.5 million.
The Aftermath
The incident has sparked a debate on the legality and ethics of such actions. The apparent owner of the bot, “elizab.eth”, claimed on Twitter that the funds were stolen from their bot and offered a bounty for their return.
They suggested that Chang could keep 10% of the funds if he agreed to return the rest.
Dave III, a pseudonymous NFT influencer, criticized Chang’s actions, calling them “illegal market activity” and warning others not to “brag about committing fraud.”
He clarified, “Placing bids you don’t want to be accepted solely to trigger other bids is the illegal part.”
However, opinions varied, with some commentators arguing that elizab.eth was simply outsmarted and that Chang did nothing wrong.
Gabriel Shapiro, General Counsel at Delphi Labs, seemed sympathetic towards elizab.eth, suggesting they might have a legal claim to get their ETH back if they hired a skilled litigator.
Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the legal issues surrounding the incident are nuanced and depend on various factors.
As of now, it is unclear whether Chang will return any of the funds or whether elizab.eth will pursue any legal action.
The incident has highlighted the risks and rewards of trading NFTs on Blur and other marketplaces, as well as the potential pitfalls associated with the use of bots.
