Hackers Loot Bill Murray of $185,000 Charity Fund Collected via NFT Auction

Bill Murray has become the latest victim of a hack attack that has cost him a significantly large amount of $185,000 (roughly Rs. 1.5 crore). Hollywood’s celebrated comedian and actor, Murray had hosted an NFT auction recently, proceeds of which were supposed to be donated into charity. This amount was wrapped as 119.2 Ether units, all of which has is now lost. As part of the auction, an NFT of a ticket to beer with Murray was sold for ETH 119.2.

This NFT is a 1/1 collectible part of the actor’s collection, created by ‘The Shack’ in partnership with Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.

While the hacker was able to get away with the charity fund, the criminal’s intensions were to go beyond and steal non-fungible tokens belonging to Murray’s personal collections.

As a protective measure, Murray’s wallet security team prevented the hacker from accomplishing the elaborate crime. Murray’s wallet security team from NFT consultancy Project Venkman quickly moved his high-priced digital collectibles into a pair of safe house wallets as soon as the attack was detected, Coindesk said in its report.

These at-risk NFTs in Murray’s wallet included a Damien Hirst NFT, two CryptoPunks, a Pudgy Penguin, a Cool Cat, and numerous Flower Girls.

While the brains behind this attack is yet to be identified, the attacker has reportedly sent the stolen funds to a wallet address tied to the crypto exchange Binance and Unionchain.ai.

Meanwhile, a runner-up in the auction named Mishap72 has replaced the lost funds and donated the sum to Chive Charities.

A police report has been filed about this incident. Murray’s team is also working with Chainalysis to track down the criminal.

Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, has launched its subsidiary dubbed Chainalysis Government Solutions, which aims to aid US government agencies in investigating crimes related to crypto. The new subsidiary will work with law enforcement and government agencies investigating cryptocurrencies, criminal operations, and recovery of funds for victims.