Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram hackers reportedly stole millions in NFTs

Alan Bernal
bored ape yacht club instagram

The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Instagram account was hacked with over millions of dollars in NFT reportedly stolen after a phishing link lured users to a scam.

After the breach, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) confirmed the hack on Twitter and warned its followers not to interact with the profile.

“There is no mint going on today,” the company said on Twitter. “It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.”

It seems as though a few items still got transferred out of people’s wallets during the hack which were valued over a million dollars combined, as BAYC sought to regain control of its accounts shortly after the hack.

Members were reportedly sent a link to a message indicating that a new giveaway, or ‘airdrop,’ was imminent. It urged users to link their MetaMask wallets before being able to collect any tokens.

The hack quickly made waves on social media sites as images were shared of numerous items being transferred during the security breach.

The company described how they responded to the hack once they discovered that their Instagram had been hacked.

“Immediately upon discovering the hack, we alerted our community, removed links to the compromised IG account from our platforms and attempted to recover the account,” they said.

“At the time of the hack, two-factor authentication was enabled and security surrounding the IG account followed best practices. We’ve regained control of the account, and are investigating how the hacker gained access with IG’s team.”

Tokens that were stolen ranged from values of 50 Ethereum (ETH) to over 100 ETH each, making the haul easily worth millions to NFT enthusiasts.

BAYC owners Yuga Labs want those who’ve been affected by or have knowledge on the hack to connect with them as they navigate the fallout of the scam.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?