Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose hacked, at least $1 million in NFTs stolen

Quick Take

  • Kevin Rose, founder of the NFT collection Moonbirds, had his wallet hacked. 
  • The cause of the hack has not been confirmed.
  • Rose’s estimated losses may exceed $1 million. 

The founder of the NFT project Moonbirds, Kevin Rose, lost at least $1 million in NFTs in a wallet exploit. 

The Block identified the hacker's address, which appears to have taken around 40 of Rose's NFTs. 

A Twitter user who goes by CirrusNFT first noticed the drain on 1:49 p.m. EST. Rose confirmed the hack himself on Twitter at 2:02 p.m. 

Rose confirming on Twitter his wallet hack on Jan. 25.

OpenSea transaction history for Rose's wallet shows that several NFTs were stolen, including Cool Cats, Squiggles and OnChainMonkeys.

Rose appears to have saved his most valuable NFTs by placing them in a separate vault. One such NFT includes a Zombie CryptoPunk (CryptoPunk #5066), of which there are only 87 other NFTs.

A few NFTs Rose saved by placing in a separate vault.

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Neither Rose nor Proof Collective, the NFT community that Rose founded, responded to The Block's requests to clarify how the hack occurred or whether community members were affected. Some users speculate that Rose's wallet was compromised from signing a malicious seaport bundle, which is a way to trade numerous assets for another item of the same value.

A Twitter user speculating on how Rose's wallet was compromised.

Rose was also an early-stage investor in Facebook, and on Jan. 6, Rose signed with major talent representation firm United Talent Agency. 

Moonbirds is one of the few NFT projects to be in the public domain. At its peak on April 17, the project brought in $280 million in trade volume, according to The Block's Data Dashboard. 

Correction: This story was updated to say Rose was an early-stage investor in Facebook. 


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Authors

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.
Jeremy Nation is a senior reporter at The Block covering the greater blockchain ecosystem. Prior to joining The Block, Jeremy worked as a product content specialist at Bullish and Block.one. He also served as a reporter for ETHNews. Follow him on Twitter @ETH_Nation.

Editor

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