An Ethereum whale suffered a huge loss as it joined an engaging meme trend on Twitter. The meme trend was directly linked to ENS domains and their growing popularity in the NFT space. Some domains have been getting high bids lately. Twitter users say these offers have been manipulated by their owners.
This whale lost 100 Ethereum over an ENS domain
Bored Ape NFT whale “Franklin” lost nearly $150,000 worth of 100 WETH in a meme bid that went wrong for an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain it registered on July 20. A Twitter user known as @franklinisbored decided to test the ENS bid bot, which posts about high bids, on Twitter. Franklin is a known Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) whale from the collection that holds multiple NFTs. Since he is a big investor, he can take such a gamble on the ENS domain.
What phrase or meme do you want me to have the ens bot tweet out as a .eth address with a 100 WETH bid? Lol I would have to mint the ENS address myself too.
— Franklin (58 apes) (@franklinisbored) July 19, 2022
How did it all start?
Franklin first tweeted asking his followers which ENS domain name they should buy.
Lol at everyone ignoring this part: pic.twitter.com/arF7qG21qa
— Franklin (58 apes) (@franklinisbored) July 19, 2022
Finally, he decided on the domain “stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth”. After that, it listed the domain name for sale. He then started using his other account to bid 100 WETH on the domain. But the whale received an astonishing 1.9 WETH ($2800) from someone else for the ENS domain. He accepted the offer and took to Twitter to celebrate the “victory.” But he forgot to cancel his last 100 WETH bid for the same ENS name.
Well this is the most surprising 1.891 ETH I have ever made. I owe it all to #ENS and @gweiman_eth’s creative idea. #Marketing101 pic.twitter.com/wk6CFBkugx
— Franklin (58 apes) (@franklinisbored) July 20, 2022
Meanwhile, less than 30 minutes later, the new owner of the domain accepted Franklin’s forgotten offer of 100 WETH. Essentially, he bought the domain name from Franklin for $2800 and sold it back to himself for $150,000.
Oh no, I lost 100 ETH. I was celebrating my joke of a domain sale, sharing the spoils, but in a dream of greed, forgot to cancel my own bid of 100 ETH to buy it back. This will be the joke and bag fumble of the century. I deserve all of the jokes and criticism.
— Franklin (58 apes) (@franklinisbored) July 20, 2022
Franklin lamented the situation, tweeting that he had “lots of time” to rescind his offer. The Bored Ape whale is now trying to regain its lost 100 WETH by returning the 1.9 WETH it received from the ENS domain sale. However, he admits that he has a “0%” chance of getting his funds back.
Efforts to make up for lost Ethereum
After the domain sold for 1.9 ETH, the BAYC whale started sending out a congratulatory tweet stating that it was “the most amazing 1,891 ETH I have ever done.” However, he soon realized his mistake when he saw that 100 WETH had passed.
He then started sending 1.9 WETH back to the recipient of the ENS address, hoping the new owner would return his 100 WETH to him. However, he also admitted that he had little or no chance of getting his money back.
The Twitter crypto community was also split in their reaction to the situation. Some argue that the new seller should keep it, while others think Franklin should be refunded.
So far, Whale hasn’t updated on whether it’s been able to get its ETH back. As Kriptokoin.com, we will be reporting the developments here.
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