In a world where technology and legal practices are intertwined, a puzzling series of events on the Blur NFT marketplace is raising legal concerns among the cryptocurrency and NFT community. Hanwe Chang — a reputable trader on the platform — skillfully tricked a competitor’s bot into buying Azuki NFTs at inflated prices.
Chang announced on Twitter that he had observed a bot mirroring his Blur bids, prompting him to do everything possible to trick it. His clever plot made him make a significant profit of $1.5 million (800 ETH).
Noticed someone’s bot was copying my bids on Blur, so I decided to trick him…
Made 800 ETH profit thanks pic.twitter.com/KlaXKUFUBK
— Hanwe (@HanweChang) August 5, 2023
Chang’s misleading bidding method
Chang has established himself as an NFT mogul by bidding for NFTs on the Blur platform, focusing on traits such as eye color and clothing – which affect the value of the digital asset – putting him at the top of the leaderboard of the market emerged.
In addition to his unique trait-related tactics, Chang concluded that by assembling 12 NFTs into a single digital wallet (“hanwe.eth,” according to Etherscan), a portion of the profits could be made after the transactions were completed.
Chang sold 12 Azuki NFTs with rare ‘Off White A’ background colors, all bought at the same time for $91,500 (50 ETH) each. Before the transaction, a similar Azuki NFT with the same background color sold for less than $9,000 (5 ETH), showing that its sale had an extremely steep price increase.
By manipulating bots to mirror his property bids, Chang fooled a naive trader into buying the Azuki NFTs for an outrageous price.
A fraudulent or honest strategy?
Chang’s deceptive NFT sales strategy, in particular, was not funny to some That focused. The alleged owner of the bot, “elizab.eth”, took to Twitter to announce that the “funds were stolen from [their] bot”. They suggested a possible loot to get the money back, where Chang could keep 10% of the money if the balance was returned.
We would like to discuss a bounty with you. We offer a bounty of 10% of all funds stolen from our bot, which you get to keep if you return the remaining 90%.
— elizab.eth ᅠᅠ (@ThinkingETH) August 5, 2023
However, as the drama unfolds, NFT enthusiasts, including a “lawyerpublicly weighed in on the status, underlining that, despite feeling wronged, they had made a legitimate, lawfully accepted offer.
On the other hand, other users have criticized Chang’s method, warning others not to discuss fraudulent practices online and calling Chang’s money-making strategy “illegal market activity.”
This situation continues to spark conversations about regulation and ethics in NFT trading, representing the desire for greater transparency and clarity in the Web3 digital asset world.
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