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Seth Green bought back his NFT Ape for around $297,000 in cryptocurrency after it was stolen in a phishing scam.
David Lumb
Mobile Reporter
David Lumb is a mobile reporter covering phones, tablets, smartwatches, and how they’re changing our lives. He spent the last decade reviewing phones for TechRadar as well as covering tech, gaming, and culture for Engadget, Popular Mechanics, NBC Asian America, Increment, Fast Company, and others. He has other loves than phones, of course — namely coffee, beaches, and burritos.
Seth Green’s stolen Bored Ape NFT is his again, ending a saga of uncertain ownership and theft that held up development of an animated TV series.
In total, four of Green’s NFTs worth more than $300,000 were stolen in May when the actor fell for a phishing scam. The most valuable was one of the Bored Ape NFTs (#8398), which can be seen safely returned to Green’s “Fred_Simian” NFT vault — though it cost him $297,000 in ethereum to buy it back from whoever had it, as reported early by BuzzFeed.
Green confirmed to BuzzFeed that he has regained custody of his digital ape.
Green’s Bored Ape was to be included in an animated TV show he is developing. He was confident that since his NFT would be considered stolen art, whoever bought it — someone with the moniker DarkWing84 — and refused to return it wouldn’t be “legally entitled to exploitation usage” of the IP. It’s unclear if the show’s development was impacted by the theft.
Green tweeted several times reaching out and threatening legal action against DarkWing84, an alias for one Mr. Cheese who had bought Bored Ape #8398 after it had been stolen. In total, Green paid around $100,000 more for the safe return of #8398 than Cheese paid for it, according to BuzzFeed.
Green could not be reached for comment.
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