Brenden Mulligan, CEO of Premint, stated that the NFT platform has also acquired Vulcan wallet security firm to prevent hackers from returning.
NFT registration portal Premint, which suffered a hack that saw more than 300 NFTs taken from users’ wallets over the weekend, today announced that it will repay the victims.
Premint CEO Brenden Muligan said this afternoon in a live streamed incident update that the company and “a third-party employee, not from Premint” had performed an on-chain analysis this past week to compile a list all NFTs taken during Sunday’s hack.
Every associated crypto wallet will receive a payment Ethereum equivalent to the floor price for each stolen NFT. This payment will be made over the course of the week. Mulligan stated to Decrypt that Premint would repay defrauded customers a total of 340ETH or just over $525,000.
Mulligan stated this morning, “I am aware that the NFTs taken were not all floor NFTs.” “Floor” is the lowest available NFT in a collection. Some NFTs that were stolen were rare, and therefore valued at a higher market price than the ones priced at the floor. You might feel that this compensation is inadequate. Premint CEO said that he doesn’t believe there is a better, more scalable, and objective way of doing this.
Two notable exceptions to this repayment policy are the most valuable NFTs stolen Sunday. A Bored Ape was flipped by hackers for 89 Ethereum ($138,000) and an Azuki sold for just under 10 ETH ($16,000). Today Mulligan announced that Premint was in a position to purchase both NFTs from their owners at purchase price and has since returned them back to their pre-hack owners. Mulligan claimed that these NFTs were among the most valuable taken by hackers “by orders-of-magnitude.”
Mulligan expressed his general disinterest in repaying victims of hacks to digital assets during the announcement. Mulligan stated, “I feel, like many others, that compensation in the world, when hacks happen, actually has negative long-term effects.” It doesn’t teach anyone a lesson.
Mulligan stated that the “vast majority” of people he’s spoken to since the hack “have told us that we shouldn’t get any compensation.” However, Premint’s hack was the only exception to Mulligan’s philosophy.
Premint’s website was compromised by hackers using malicious JavaScript code. A pop-up appeared on the site asking users to verify their wallet ownership. This is supposedly an extra security measure. The hackers then hacked into the wallets of the duped customers and stole 321 NFTs. They quickly sold most of them for over $400,000
As a sign of Premint’s commitment to long-term security, Mulligan announced today that Premint had acquired wallet authentication tool Vulcan. Mulligan stated that more information about the partnership will be available next week.
Sunday’s hack was just the latest attempt to target the NFT market. Last year, it generated $25 billion in sales. OpenSea was hacked in February and a phishing scheme took $1.7 million of NFTs. A hack on the instagram account of Bored Ape Yacht Club led to a $2.8million NFT theft. Actor Seth Green spent almost $300,000 last month to retrieve a Bored Ape NFT that he planned to use as the centerpiece of a new television series.
One common thread in many of these NFT thefts is the involvement with centralized sites or platforms like Premint. Users give some private information to exchange for convenience and new features. Although giving your wallet information to a central platform can pose additional risks, it can offer some protections, such as today’s repayment plan.
Mulligan described the events as a “horrible experience” for him and his team. “Hopefully, with this we can move on.”
