Developer Defrauds Purchasers of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs In A $2.9 Million Rug Pull

A developer has been charged with defrauding purchasers of “Mutant Ape Planet” (MAP) NFTs out of US$2.9 million (1020.2 ETH) in cryptocurrency. Aurelien Michel, the French national behind the incident, was arrested at JFK International Airport in New York and is set to appear in court today.

MAP is a collection of 6799 unique digital art pieces. The project was launched in January 2022 on Discord, Twitter account: @mutantapeplanet and an official website that was recently taken down

The project gained popularity and scored more than 1,500 sales in the same month selling at approximately $555 each. Currently, 3,734 investors own at least one of the MAP NFTs.

Michel is accused of using the promise of numerous rewards and benefits to increase demand for the NFTs and their value, only to “rug pull” the purchasers by withdrawing from the project and leaving them with a worthless asset. 

QLUE^TM Visualization of the Scam

Using our blockchain graphing and investigation tool QLUE^TM, we tracked the movement of funds out of the NFT contract to 2 different fraud wallet addresses. The funds took different streams before ending up in Tornado Cash, different exchanges and cross-chain in the BNB chain.

QLUE^TM graph capture detailing the movement of funds and their different destinations

Our Breakdown of the Stolen Assets

We managed to analyze the total assets per different destination used by the culprit to confiscate the stolen funds and created the below summary:

 

• • Tornado Cash: 500 ETH ($144K)

• • BNB chain: 125,000 USDC

• • Exchanges: 366 ETH and 309,418 USDC ($1.4 million)

NFTs have gained popularity in recent years, with some them selling for millions of dollars. This is a reminder that the same protections against fraud and manipulation that apply to traditional markets also apply to the fast-evolving world of NFTs and other crypto assets.

It’s important for investors to do their due diligence and be aware of the risks, no matter how exciting and promising a new digital asset may seem.

Contact us to learn more about QLUE^TM and how it fuels your cryptocurrency investigation.