Bored Ape whale claims $4 million lost in rug pull scam shortly after selling nearly $3 million of the popular NFTs

Well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club holder known as @franklinisbored on Twitter is claiming they lost "about" 2,000 ether (about $4 million) in a rug pull scam. The investor posted the allegation shortly after a separate post saying they had sold “a lot” of Bored Ape non-fungible tokens.

The Block Research confirmed that @franklinisbored sold a total of 27 Bored Ape NFTs for 1,439 ETH, or nearly $3 million. The NFTs sold for an average of 55.29 ETH, roughly $110,000 per Bored Ape, The Block Research also said. The price of ether has recently been rising amid the Shapella upgrade.

@Franklinisbored posted both announcements to Twitter, where they have more than 163,000 followers.

"I got rug pulled on an investment I put almost 2000 ETH into, thinking it was credible due to who else invested (not naming anyone for privacy reasons)," they wrote in a second post. "Someone used our $$ as a casino gambling Ponzi and flushed it down the drain."



About an hour earlier @franklinisbored announced the selling of their Bored Apes while trying to explain the motivation.

“Due to an unfortunate [in real life] issue, I have had to sell off a lot of BAYC apes to pay off BendDAO loans while the liquidity was available,” they wrote. “I won't get involved in NFT trading/twitter for a while, and will just focus on my private life for the time being with my remaining apes.”

Bored Ape Yacht Club liquidity 

The major NFT investor may now only hold two Bored Apes, said The Block Research, adding that the sale caused the collection's floor price to slide to its lowest level in five months.

BendDAO operates as a non-fungible token lending platform, where lenders can deposit ether to earn interest. Additionally, borrowers can obtain loans using their NFTs as collateral.

(Updates with second announcement claiming investor was the victim of a rug pull scam worth about $4 million.)