Yuga Labs confirms Discord server hack, $360k NFT theft

Yuga Labs has confirmed that its Discord server for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series was hacked over the weekend.

The confirmation came 11 hours after independent Twitter user @NFTherder claimed that it was compromised and that over 145 Ether worth of NFTs were stolen.

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First reported by CoinDesk, it turned out the problem was actually worse than that. Yuga Labs confirmed that 200 Ether (around $360,000) worth of NFTs were stolen on Saturday and that community manager Boris Vagner's Discord account was hacked.

The hacker posted phishing links using Vagner's account on the Bored Ape Discord server to mimic his authority and trick NFT owners into parting with their private keys. Yuga Labs seems to be unsure about whether any Bored Ape NFTs were accessed, and have called for community members to reach out to its team if they were affected.

This is the third time in the last couple of months that Yuga Labs has been at the centre of a theft where the bad actor was able to impersonate a member of its staff. On April 1, the NFT 'Mutant Ape Yacht Club #8662' was stolen through a phishing link posted on the project’s Discord.

On April 25, the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord and Instagram accounts were hacked, posting a fake link to a surprise crypto minting event.

The latest hack has revitalised the debate on using Discord servers for crypto communities. Critics say that Discord does not provide enough security, while supporters say that traders who are willing to give away their private keys are susceptible to hacks on any platform.