Fake Banksy NFT Sells For $340,000 Amid Suspicion the Artist’s Website Was Hacked

While most of us perceive that non-fungible token’s are a large rip-off, it’s not every single day you see full-on artwork capers taking place on this planet of digital NFT’s. But we received a style of what which may appear to be on Tuesday when one nameless investor spent $340,000 on an NFT from Banksy’s web site, solely to be taught it was a faux.

The cast piece of digital artwork popped up on Banksy’s official site on Tuesday morning below the now-deleted URL “banksy.co.uk/nft.html.” The solely factor on the web page was a JPEG of what was presumably Banksy’s tackle the $1 billion dollar CryptoPunk hype practice, that includes the artist’s typical form of social commentary, this time in regards to the terrible carbon footprint that NFT paintings leaves behind. The title, in case you have been questioning, was “Great Redistribution of the Climate Change Disaster.”

An picture of mentioned Disaster was listed on the Opensea NFT market earlier at the moment by an artist going by “gaakmann,” which matches a pseudonym Banksy had used in the past. In different phrases, it appeared legit—or about as legit as an NFT paintings may be, anyway—so individuals began bidding. The winner of the auctioned paintings ended up being an nameless crypto-art collector named “Pranksy,” who spent a whopping 100 ETH (just a little over $340,000 USD) on the work, in accordance with blockchain records.

That’s when issues began getting bizarre. The web page on Banksy’s web site was quietly taken down, with no phrase about how that web page appeared on the location within the first place. Talking with the BBC in regards to the incident, the nameless purchaser mentioned that he suspected Banksy’s web site was hacked, and a few random rip-off artist was really the one who put up the seemingly legit webpage.

In a press release despatched to the BBC, Banksy’s group instructed the outlet that “any Banksy NFT auctions are not affiliated with the artist in any shape or form.” We’ve additionally reached out to Pest Control, the company that acts as Banksy’s public mouthpiece for the press, about any updates.

At least to date although, the weird NFT rip-off does appear to have a contented ending. Gaakman has apparently refunded the 100 ETH again into Pranksy’s account simply hours after the public sale on his faked piece was closed. The purchaser confirmed to Motherboard that he’s planning on protecting the paintings—a minimum of for proper now.