Bored Ape NFT whale Franklin lost 100 wrapped Ethereum (WETH), worth roughly $150.000, to a joke bid gone wrong for an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain he registered on July 20.
The joke started on July 19 when Franklin asked his followers which “phrase or meme” they wanted him to place a 100 WETH bid on to trigger the ENS Bids Twitter bot account.
Ce frază sau meme vrei să am mesajul ens bot ca adresă .eth cu o ofertă de 100 WETH? Lol, ar trebui să bat și eu adresa ENS.
— Franklin? ️creind 57 de maimuțe (@franklinisbored) Iulie 19, 2022
Franklin then registered “stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth” using a different wallet and placed a 100 WETH bid from his main wallet.
However, Franklin got a surprising offer of 1.9 WETH (roughly $2800) from someone else for the ENS domain. He accepted the bid, took to Twitter to celebrate his “win,” and forgot to cancel his last 100 WETH offer for the same ENS name.
Ei bine, acesta este cel mai surprinzător 1.891 ETH pe care l-am făcut vreodată. Îi datorez totul #ENS și @gweiman_ethideea creativă a lui. #Marketing101 pic.twitter.com/wk6CFBkugx
— Franklin? ️creind 57 de maimuțe (@franklinisbored) Iulie 20, 2022
Meanwhile, less than 30 minutes later, the new owner of the ENS domain name accepted Franklin’s forgotten 100 WETH bid –essentially selling the domain name he bought from Franklin for $2800 back to him at $150,000.
Oh, nu, am pierdut 100 ETH. Îmi sărbătorisem gluma despre vânzarea unui domeniu, împărțind prada, dar într-un vis de lăcomie, am uitat să-mi anulez propria ofertă de 100 ETH pentru a o cumpăra înapoi. Aceasta va fi gluma și geanta secolului. Merit toate glumele și criticile.
— Franklin? ️creind 57 de maimuțe (@franklinisbored) Iulie 20, 2022
Franklin took to Twitter to lament the situation tweeting that he didn’t get “botted” and had “plenty of time” to cancel his offer.
The Bored Ape whale is now trying to regain his lost 100 WETH by refunding the 1.9 WETH he got from the ENS domain sale. He, however, admits there is a “0% chance” he would get back his funds.
Here is a summary of what happened. There’s a 0% chance I’ll get back whatever the person who sold into my stupid joke bid, but I might as well try. I sent them this NFT:https://t.co/PeRU3OIQjr pic.twitter.com/SPmwsSlgIa
— Franklin? ️creind 57 de maimuțe (@franklinisbored) Iulie 20, 2022
A Twitter account, 8892OS, claimed he was the recipient of Franklin’s 100 WETH.
L-am furat pe tipul ăsta pentru 100 de eti și mi-a trimis încă 1.9? pic.twitter.com/TXtBxqvkhB
— 8892 (@8892OS) Iulie 20, 2022
As of press time, it is unclear whether Franklin got back his 100 WETH.
Comunitatea cripto reacționează
Twitter’s crypto community has been divided in their reaction to this situation.
Some argued that the new seller should keep his holding, while others think Franklin should be refunded.
230 ETH to be exact ? I was thinking the same thing today! I feel so bad for Franklin and we’ve seen how easy it is to forget or make mistake. Hopefully the seller decides to do the right thing ?
— John Knopf (@JohnKnopfPhotos) Iulie 20, 2022
Damm this is tough. I want to say it’s fucked up but in a way that person kind of earned it. They bet 2 ETH on this play. High risk high reward. They could have easily been down 2 ETH if the bid would have canceled and then accepted. I hope you make your money back fam?
— MayanMango.eth (@MayanMango) Iulie 20, 2022
Some community members also used the opportunity to troll Franklin.
Just registered this name and imma send it to you my man @franklinisbored
play-stupid-games-win-stupid-prizes.eth
— youthful.eth ????? (@ForSureNotHere) Iulie 20, 2022
An NFT collector DC Investor said everyone should learn from Franklin’s mistake and “respect the blockchain as a fiduciary layer.”
y’all gotta respect the blockchain as a fiduciary layer and not go around making joke bids on stuff, signing 100 ETH from your wallet
every time you sign something like that, feel the gravity of it
i do feel bad for Franklin’s loss here, but let it be a lesson to everyone https://t.co/aheENKpPrS
— DCinvestor.eth ⌐◨-◨ (@iamDCinvestor) Iulie 20, 2022
Source: https://cryptoslate.com/how-this-nft-whale-lost-150k-to-a-joke/