Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Valued at $300,000 Sells for $3,000 Because of a Typo

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are some of the most expensive and well-known NFTs around and one of them has been accidentally sold for $3,015 (roughly Rs. 2.28 lakh), despite being valued at $300,000 (roughly Rs. 2.27 crore). The owner of the NFT, who went by the name Max or username, ‘maxnaut’, had wanted to list his Bored Ape NFT for 75 Ether only to end up listing it for 0.75 Ether, which was about one-hundredth of the actual price because of a “lapse of concentration”.

The buyer who scooped up the NFT for $3,015 (roughly Rs. 2.28 lakh) listed it back online for $248,000 (roughly Rs. 1.87 crore). Those over at CNET who spoke to Max about the incident believe it was likely purchased by a bot coded to spot NFTs below a certain price range.

“How’d it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess,” Max told the publication. “I list a lot of items every day and just wasn’t paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 ETH [$34,000 or roughly Rs. 25.67 lakh] of gas fees so it instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250K was gone.”

In the burgeoning NFT scene, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have exploded in popularity. Following a 900 percent increase in BAYC sales, the NFT marketplace OpenSea saw its trading volume double last month.

A slew of celebrities and influencers have jumped on the Bored Ape bandwagon, helping to feed the trend. Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Steph Curry, and Mark Cuban are just a few of the celebrities that have adopted NFTs. Celebrities such as Timbaland, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, and free agency NFL wide receiver Dez Bryant have joined the expanding list of celebrities who have embraced the Bored Ape craze.

Unlike fat finger errors that occur in bank transactions that can be easily reversed upon notifying the relevant authorities, fat finger errors within the cryptocurrency space, which is decentralised, often means that there’s very little you can do to reverse the losses.

“Because the sector is so new, horrible things will happen, whether it’s your fault or the fault of the technology. Forget and move on once you no longer have control over the outcome,” said Max to CNET.