MAYC ripoff creator pleads guilty, G2A opens NFT platform: Nifty Newsletter

cointelegraph.com:

In this week’s newsletter, read about the creator of a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) knock-off pleading guilty to fraud charges, check out how OpenSea’s non-fungible token (NFT) users received a massive phishing email campaign, and how Bitcoin transaction fees flipped Ethereum network fees as the hype for Ordinals resurfaced. In other news, game distributor G2A has launched a gaming-focused NFT marketplace. 

Aurelien Michel, the creator of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection, which copies the popular MAYC collection by Yuga Labs, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a New York federal court. Michel admitted to defrauding investors of $3 million and performing a rug pull.

The team behind the MAYC knock-off falsely promised rewards and benefits to their investors and intentionally failed to deliver on their promises. They instead diverted the proceeds and used them for personal gain. Michel admitted to the rug pull through social media and now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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Users of NFT marketplace OpenSea have reportedly received emails containing malicious links from attackers pretending to be OpenSea. Community members took to social media, reporting that they received phishing attempts.

Meanwhile, OpenSea assured its users through a post on X (formerly Twitter) that there was no hack. However, a developer responded that while there may not be a vulnerability through the company’s smart contracts, the developer received a phishing email, suggesting that “dev contacts have been exfiltrated from OpenSea.”

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The average daily transaction fee for the Bitcoin network surpassed Ethereum as the market showed a renewed appetite for Bitcoin Ordinals, a tool for creating NFT-like