NFT ‘Evolved Apes’ creator allegedly got away with $2.7 million

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NFT Evolved Apes creator allegedly got away with 27 million NFT 'Evolved Apes' creator allegedly got away with $2.7 million

Investors in Evolved Apes, the recently launched “pfp” — short for profile picture — non-fungible token (NFT) grapples with the disappearance of the project’s unknown developer.

Moving on to the moniker “Evil Ape,” the developer is allegedly living up to the name by vanishing with 798 Ether (ETH) worth over $2.7 million from the project’s coffers.

The stolen funds reportedly covered funds that came from the initial minting and trading of ETH in the secondary sale of NFTs on the OpenSea market.

In fact, Evolved Apes was one of the recently promoted NFT releases, with the 10,000-strong group reportedly selling out within 10 minutes and the price of the floor rising steadily after the quick sale.

However, the project interface on OpenSea shows a low floor price of 0.005 ETH, which is significantly lower than the original mint cost. The drop in the lower price is no doubt linked to the current rug-pull scandal rocking the project.

Aside from allegedly taking all of the project’s money, Evil Ape has also removed the Evolved Apes Twitter account and website.

Before fleeing with $2.7 million, Evil Ape and the project creators promised to ship a blockchain fighting game, a promise shared by several NFT developers along the lines of avatars.

Some community members came together to further develop the project under the “Anti-Monkey” umbrella.

The entities behind the new faction say they want to create a more community-focused operating model for the project, including the multisig wallet, to prevent a repeat of another Evil Ape disaster.

Related: NFT ‘Pranksy’ whale pranked by fake Banksy for 97.7 ETH

With Evil Ape still earning 4% revenue on secondary sales, the current plan is to create a new venture that will pass the new NFTs to the current owners.

NFTs dominated the crypto discourse in 2021 with massive platforms like OpenSea registering massive trading volumes.

Given the popularity of NFTs, it’s perhaps not surprising to see alleged rogue actors like the Evil Ape trying to trick unsuspecting victims.