The following story shows exactly where we are within certain areas of the industry in 2022. Actor and producer Seth Green found himself on the wrong side of a phishing scam that resulted in Green being robbed of several NFTs. Green had a new animated series forthcoming called White Horse Tavern that was developed from his NFT collection but, due to the hack, the series is now on hold until he can possibly get the collection back.
Green teased the trailer for White Horse Tavern on Saturday at the NFT conference VeeCon. Per BuzzFeed News, the show seems to be based on the question, “What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?” The real question for Green now is, “what if your friendly neighborhood bartender didn’t know about copyright law?” Seth Green’s NFTs were obtained by a scammer back in early May so he lost the commercial rights to his show’s central protagonist, the Bored Ap named Fred Simian. His likeness and usage now belong to someone else. Here is what Green had to say about the matter:
“I bought that ape in July 2021, and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show. Then days before — his name is Fred by the way — days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped.”
The exact date of the NFT ape kidnapping was on May 8, 2022. Green actually had four NFTs swiped from him in the phishing scheme that also included two Mutant Apes and a Doodle. They were apparently transferred out of Green’s wallet after he unknowingly interacted with a phishing site.
So what are NFTs exactly? According to Forbes, “NFT stands for non-fungible token. It’s generally built using the same kind of programming as cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that’s where the similarity ends. Physical money and cryptocurrencies are “fungible,” meaning they can be traded or exchanged for one another.” Also according to Investopedia, “NFTS are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated. NFTs can represent real-world items like artwork and real estate. “Tokenizing” these real-world tangible assets makes buying, selling, and trading them more efficient while reducing the probability of fraud.”
One of Green’s Mutant Apes was flipped for $42,000, according to Motherboard, while the most precious item, the Bored Ape, was also sold by the phishing scammer to a collector known as “DarkWing84” on the NFT marketplace site OpenSeas. “DarkWing84” purchased the precious Ape for $200,000 and then the NFT was quickly transferred to a collection called “GBE_Vault,” where it currently remains. Green has spent the last few days tweeting to “DarkWing84” in an attempt to reclaim what was once his. He has a desire to, as he puts it, “work it out between us,” but it’s not clear if the Twitter user was aware that the ape was obtained illicitly when they purchased it.
BuzzFeed News published their story about Green and what the stolen ape means about the future of his show. They mention that he no longer owns the commercial rights to the NFT so the show can’t move forward but Green believes that since the art was stolen, this could all be resolved in court but he wants to avoid that and work it out with “DarkWing84” like civilized individuals:
As of now, the NFT marketplace OpenSea has said that they have frozen the tokens, and all four of the NFTS taken from Green are now marked with “suspicious activity” warnings. According to OpenSeas spokesperson Allie Mack, “We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell items.”
How will this all unfold? We will be sure to update you on whether or not Seth Green is returned his Bored Ape NFTs so he can continue with his future creative endeavor. Any NFT aficionados out there? Feel free to comment on the ins and outs of what his options may be.