And I set fire to the cryptopunk! Jamming to Adele is always a great mood. Do you know what’s not so great tho? Accidentally burning your cryptopunk while trying to wrap it. This space is so weird. On one end we’ve got a web3 producer winning an oscar. And, on the other, we’ve got investors turning their NFTs to ashes. Yes, the accidental Cryptopunk #685 burn is real. Brandon Jamie made the biggest mistake of his life costing him $134.2K.
His cryptopunk right now:
How Did The Cryptopunk #685 Burn Happen?
By accident. Believe it or not, in the NFT space you can mistakenly set a Cryptopunk worth 77 ETH on fire. This is worth $134.2K per the ETH rate at the time of writing. But, was the Cryptopunk #685 burn an oops situation? Yes.
Who Used to Own Cryptopunk #685 Prior to Its Burn?
Brandon Riley, known as vitality growth on Twitter, is an NFT investor who owns NFTs from:
- Bored Ape Yacht Club
- Veefriends
- And Ordinal Punks, among others
Moreover, he had recently bought his Cryptopunk #685 and was planning to hold on to it for a long time. He is the proud owner of BAYC #586.
And, do you notice any similarities between Cryptopunk #685 and BAYC #586? 685. 586. Exactly. This Punk has the same number of his ape but in reverse. See why it was so important to him?
Now feels like an appropriate time to introduce #BAYC 586 to #Punk 685 (acquired a week ago). Hope to hold both for a decade… LGF! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/SLb68rY6MR
— Brandon Riley (@vitalitygrowth) March 19, 2023
So, Why Did He Burn It?
If the Punk meant this much to Brandon why did he burn it? Well, he didn’t intend on burning it. Once again, the cryptopunk #685 burn was a mistake. He wanted to wrap Cryptopunk #685 to borrow money to buy NFTs.
Again, he was planning on keeping it. He just needed to borrow against it. He was going to accept a collection offer of 50 ETH @ 9% on NFTfi.
So, he decided to wrap it on his own. In order to wrap the NFT, you need to create a proxy wallet. He was trying to do that by following the instructions step by step.
But, in an attempt to claim his proxy wallet address, he accidentally sent his Punk to a burn address. He didn’t pay attention to what was happening until he saw the insane gas fees. But it was too late then.
He explained that he’s not a developer and is “not at all familiar with these contracts” and, doesn’t “really understand how wrapped punks work.”
He further noted that he should’ve asked someone more experienced to help. This could’ve prevented him from losing a third of his net worth in a single transaction
Today I accidentally burned a @cryptopunksnfts trying to wrap punk 685.
I was so focused on following the instructions exactly, that I slipped up, destroying a third of of my net worth in a single transaction. @yugalabs please sell me the @v1punks 685 as a consolation. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/jHoTGvlc7j
— Brandon Riley (@vitalitygrowth) March 25, 2023
Who Is To Blame For The Cryptopunk #685 Burn?
Mistakes happen all the time. Sadly, a mistake like the cryptopunk #685 burn is very costly. But, who is really to blame here? After tweeting about the unfortunate incident, Brandon received mixed replies.
Of course, a lot of NFT peeps empathized with him on the situation. However, others bluntly and directly blamed him for what happened. And, even called him stupid.
While others straight-forward said it’s Yuga Labs’ fault. They blamed Yuga for shutting down the wrappedpunk site and forcing collectors to directly interact with the contract.
Brandon even said: “If I knew the site being down was just a temporary thing I certainly would have waited.”.
Conclusion
All in all, we can use the Cryptopunk #685 incident as a lesson. The majority of people in this space are not educated enough about most of its technology. So, always make sure to understand what you’re doing or you can end up losing a hell lot of money. And, because smart contracts are very confusing, we got you. Here’s a complete non-tech guide on smart contracts. Enjoy!