NFT trader’s $1.5M bot chess move
YouTuber and nonfungible token (NFT) trader Hanwe Chang said he scored 800 Ether (ETH), around $1.5 million, by tricking a rival trader’s bot into buying his own inflated NFTs.
In an Aug. 5 X (Twitter) post, Chang said he noticed a bot was copying his bids on the NFT marketplace Blur and decided to trick them.
An NFT-focused account A Raving Ape speculated that from a separate, anonymous wallet Chang purchased multiple Azuki NFTs sharing the same background color.
Context on how @HanweChang executed a plan to perfection and made 800e by selling “Off White A – Background color” azuki at 50e each and azuki elementals at 15e each.
This is an epic case of PvP in the current NFT trading market ⚔️
Hanwe has been coasting at the top spot of… pic.twitter.com/M8Ujm8CquJ
— A-Raving-Ape.eth (@a_raving_ape) August 5, 2023
Knowing bots were copying his trades, Chang placed an inflated bid on the NFTs held in his anonymous wallet from his publicly-known hanwe.eth wallet.
Once a bot automatically copied the inflated bid, Chang accepted it from his anonymous wallet and was able to palm off the NFTs at a significant markup.
Seemingly, the owner of the bot known as elizab.eth responded to Chang’s post claiming the funds were stolen and offered to discuss a 10% bounty if the funds were returned.
We would like to discuss…
