Another installment in the series of life-affirming Web3 downfalls, more than $1.74 million has been stolen from unsuspecting would-be cryptocurrency investors after the Azuki NFT anime world's Twitter account was hacked. That adds up to a potential $1 million worth of stolen NFTs.
Having taken possession of the Azuki Official Twitter (opens in a new tab) account, the hackers tried to seduce their large base of 334,600 fans with a series of posts advertising fake mints. The fanbase, made up of anime, cryptocurrency and bean enthusiasts, seems to be in good spirits despite the attack.
In case you're wondering about the bean connection, Azuki beans are a type of sweet red bean that is commonly used in Japanese cuisineโneeded context for later.
Users who fell for the social engineering feat and clicked, trying to mint through the bogus links, not only had their entire cryptocurrency wallets drained, but many of their precious NFTs were also stolen. These included 74 Otherdeeds NFTs worth around $2,700 each, three Porsche NFTs worth perhaps $3,100, 57 Beanz NFTs worth $2,600, 12 Doodles NFTs worth $10,600 and 49 Pudgy Penguins worth $9,200. Two Mutant Apes were also lost, which could sell for around $24,300 at rock bottom (via Web3 is going great (opens in a new tab) ).
One particular user is said to have lost $750,000 worth of USDC stablecoin from a single wallet. Tragic, really. It would have been safer to invest in real life Azuki bean stocks.
In a thread detailing the events of the January 27 attack, Azuki officials say they "immediately reached out to our contacts on Twitter and took steps to alert the community. Malicious tweets and links were promptly removed."
It's unclear how the hack came to be, though Azuki says she's currently looking into it. "We take security very seriously, and the Twitter account was protected using a 2FA authenticator app."
Somewhat appropriately, Azuki recently teamed up with a clothing brand called Ambush (opens in a new tab) , only to have his followers ambushed a bit later. Omen, perhaps? The least I can say about Azuki is that his stuff looks so much better animated than Adata's terrible web3 anime (opens in a new tab) extreme saga.
He adzuki site (opens in a new tab) It is truly something to behold. Saturated with a kind of Matrix-inspired โtake the red beanโ speech, you can travel to different parts of the world to discover stories that are undoubtedly a gateway to money-making schemes of the NFT variety.
The Alley is my favorite, and it almost brought me to tears when the Teriyaki Boys' hilarious bell tune Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift Theme (opens in a new tab) started playing in the background. He promises potential NFT investors "many, many diamonds dangling" as the original song proposes, though that seems to have failed here.
Sounds like another nail in the coffin for NFT.
