Facepalm: From elaborate scams to hacks, most people are aware of the inherent dangers associated with NFTs, but it seems something else to be mindful of is the dreaded 'fat finger' error. The act of simply hitting the wrong keys has cost the owner of a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT almost $250,000 after they listed it for the incorrect price.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a set of 10,000 semi-randomly generated apes created by Delaware-based Yuga Labs. They're some of the most sought-after NFTs you can buy; a collection containing 101 apes sold for $24.4 million back in September, and its members (owners) include Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, and Post Malone, writes CNET.
The cheapest Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT is current on sale for 52 ether, or almost $208,000, so it was a surprise to see one on sale for $3,999 on Saturday.
It turns out that this wasn't some scam; the NFT's owner simply typed 0.75 ether when listing his non-fungible instead of 75 ether, or $300,000. Seller Max, who goes by the username maxnaut, blamed the mistake on a "fat-finger error."
The unusually cheap NFT was bought instantly, with the purchaser paying an extra $34,000 to expedite the transaction, thereby ensuring nobody else was able to buy it before them. The item was then relisted for $248,000. It's believed that a bot coded to purchase NFTs below a specific price was the one that grabbed the bargain.
"How'd it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess," Max told CNET's Daniel Van Boom. "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] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone."
The disastrous consequences of fat finger syndrome are far from new. In addition to costing sellers a lot of money, typos were blamed for a hijack alarm at Amsterdam airport and (partly) why Aliens: Colonial Marines was so bad.
h/t: CNET.