An NFT investor is suing Matt Furie, the creator behind the Pepe meme, for his role in a hack that left his collection worthless. Jaggedsoft, who is also the creator of the Binance application programming interface (API), claims Furie and the NFT marketplace Chain/Saw enabled the hack by engaging in mismanagement, willful misconduct, and negligence of the project.

Furie created Pepe the Frog, and over the years, the meme has become prominent in both online and crypto communities. The artist did not join the Web3 space until recently, and his partnership with Chain/Saw led to the release of the NFT collection Replicandy. Pseudonymous crypto trader Path revealed that Jaggedsoft is the largest collector of Replicandy NFTs.

Within the third week of June, Furie’s NFT collection Replicandy was targeted by an IT worker who was hired as a developer for the project. The worker belongs to a North Korean hacker group, and these entities are known for their notoriety in infiltrating crypto projects.

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT explained that the IT worker first transferred ownership of Replicandy from Furie and Chain/Saw to his address. Then the attacker continuously minted NFTs and sold them in bids until their floor price plummeted to zero. Afterwards, they withdrew the mint proceeds from the contract, totaling at least $310,000, and transferred them to their addresses.

Since the hack happened, neither Furie nor Chain/Saw have said anything about reimbursing users or handling the incident. Their X handles, which were active prior to the event, have been mute since June 18. 

Jaggedsoft insists the project could have avoided hiring a North Korean hacker if they had done their due diligence on workers before employment. He insists that skipping basic checks, hiring the wrong people, letting a hack happen, and trying to hide it is not just unethical, but potentially criminal concealment.

The NFT investor also disclosed that Chain/Saw’s creator threatened to “fuck my life up” if he went ahead with the litigation. However, he said he had nothing to lose since his collectibles were already worthless. 

Meanwhile, the Binance API creator initially did not want to involve Furie in the lawsuit as he only created the art. However, Furie’s role in concealing the incident and other deceptive behaviors caused a change of heart; now he is mentioned in the lawsuit. Will litigation make Furie and Chain/Saw to reimburse users? Stay tuned for more updates.

Shaurya is a co-leader of Asia’s Coindesk Tokens and Data Team, focusing on cryptographic derivatives, Defi, Market Microstructure, and protocol analysis.

Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI and CRV. GHST, Perp, Btrfly, Ohm, Banana, Rome, Burger, Spirit, and Orca.

He offers over $1,000 for liquidity pools of compounds, curves, sushi, pancake waps, burger waps, orca, anyswap, spirit waps, luke protocols, longing finances, synthetics, harvests, compiled cartels, Olimps Dao, Rome, Trader Joe and Sun.

Well-known NFT marketplace OpenSea has launched the second version of its Creator Studio to enable users to access streamlined experiences.

According to a tweet by the marketplace, Creator Studio 2.0 offers an upgrade for on-chain creativity. OpenSea users can open new collections, schedule drops, and connect to 20 supported chains from the studio. They can also design custom pages and share with the world, showcasing their art in the virtual space.

The Creator Studio is a part of OpenSea’s rebuilt ecosystem. The NFT marketplace had announced five months ago that it would rebuild its business, technology, and features from scratch. The new platform, named OS2, would offer faster services, integrating NFTs and tokens. OpenSea tagged OS2 a gateway to Web3 and a one-stop shop to everything on-chain.

After taking OS2 out of beta and transitioning from the legacy OpenSea platform into the new one, releasing Creator Studio 2.0 is the next step. Notably, the marketplace launched a studio in late 2023 to simplify the Web3 experience for creators. 

The first Creator Studio replaced lazy NFT minting tools with independent contracts that allowed creators to deploy and mint their collections without engaging with multiple platforms. The studio offered storytelling features, including immersive video, image, text modules, and featured NFT collections.

On the Studio’s second version, OpenSea enhanced the storytelling features further by allowing artists and collectors to curate personalized storefronts. The platform enables participants to customize their pages and schedule minting across connected chains, fostering meaningful engagement across audiences. 

Additionally, Creators Studio 2.0 offers cross-chain purchasing, aggregated listings, and integrated wallet features to users, enabling flexibility across networks.

OpenSea’s latest release comes two weeks after it acquired the Web3 wallet app, Rally, to provide a mobile experience for users. The marketplace is working to build an ecosystem that caters to a wide array of NFT creators, collectors, and traders. The platform is focused on providing an environment where NFTs and tokens do not compete, but complement each other and join hands to onboard more users.

As OpenSea strives to eliminate fragmented blockchains and the need for multiple bridges and separate applications, the marketplace is bound to release more products. It is likely to acquire more firms that align with its goals. Stay tuned for updates to know what’s up the company’s sleeve.

Chinese tech giant Tencent is exploring a potential acquisition of Nexon, the South Korean game developer behind the hit title Dungeon & Fighter, Bloomberg reports. Nexon is heavily invested in Web 3 gaming, including the ambitious MapleStory franchise.

The firm has reportedly approached the family of Nexon’s late founder Kim Jung-ju, who controls a 44.4% stake in Nexon via holding company NXC Corp, to discuss a potential acquisition.

Discussions are still preliminary, and there’s no guarantee they will result in a deal, the report states, citing sources close to the matter.

If successful, Tencent would be acquiring a company with a $16.6 billion market capitalization, a move that could reignite its ambitions in global gaming M&A after a slowdown sparked by Chinese regulatory crackdowns in 2020.

The deal could help Tencent secure long-term control over popular intellectual property and give it a firmer foothold in South Korea’s lucrative gaming market.

But any deal would be complicated.

The Kim family inherited control after the founder’s death in 2022 and has since handed shares to the Korean government to cover inheritance taxes. The government has been unable to offload its stake.

Tencent previously tried to buy Nexon in 2019, but talks collapsed over pricing. This new attempt follows Tencent’s $1.3 billion investment in a new Ubisoft unit and a 10% stake in K-pop label SM Entertainment.

The Chinese tech giant is also expanding in the blockchain space, announcing earlier this year that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a suite of blockchain API services with Ankr.

Read more: S. Korean Gaming Giant Nexon to Use Polygon for Popular MapleStory Universe

Singer-songwriter Jonathan Mann recently shared the story of how earning millions in Ethereum (ETH) during a one-hour sale of his NFTs eventually became a “tax nightmare.”

Mann has published one song a day over the past 17 years and released his 6,000th song on June 5, which was about the purported nightmare resulting from the sale.

In 2022, he sold 4,000 songs worth 13 years of work within 60 minutes for a total of roughly $3 million in Ethereum. He retained the earnings in Ethereum instead of converting to dollars.

However, a week later, market price slipped below $3,000, shrinking the sale’s dollar value.

Tax nightmare

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats revenue earned directly in crypto as ordinary income at the moment of receipt, he owed a massive tax obligation even though his assets were no longer worth the same dollar amount.

The tax man calculated Mann’s tax obligations based on the $3 million initial valuation rather than on subsequent lower prices.

Mann had already accumulated $1 million in 2021 obligations linked to earlier NFT mints and airdrops, including Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and ConstitutionDAO tokens. 

To cover part of that balance, he borrowed $400,000 against 518 ETH through the Aave lending platform. However, little did he know that his collateral was about to evaporate.

The LUNA collapse

However, the May 2022 collapse of the Terra ecosystem cut the collateral’s value from $1.5 million to about $200,000, forcing a last-minute repayment that left Mann with 163 ETH and a net capital loss of roughly $1.3 million.

IRS notices during 2023 and 2024 cited unpaid income tax of nearly $1.1 million and threatened asset seizure. Mann recounted that at the time he was “dreading” the only option he had left to solve his dilemma – selling his “autoglyph.”

He wrote:

“My Autoglyph.

Minted April 8th, 2019.  

(Day before my birthday)  

It cost $36.

And this wasn’t just an NFT. 

Matt Hall and John Watkinson (of Cryptopunks fame) had made something special. The day after the mint, I turned mine into music. John built a custom “glyph to midi” tool because of it.

It was a piece of my soul from when 50 people knew what NFTs were.  

By 2024, it was worth over $1 million.”

The sale offset the losses from his borrowing and helped him clear his tax obligations. As a conclusion to his story, Mann urged creators to convert crypto from NFT sales to dollars.

He wrote:

“The moral for every NFT creator: SELL. THE. ETH. IMMEDIATELY.”

This will match revenue with prospective tax liabilities. He cited using the protocol 0xSplits to automatically convert half of NFT proceeds into USDC to reduce exposure to price swings.

Mentioned in this article

Yuga Labs, the NFT developer behind the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, has unveiled a new product that simplifies the onboarding process for both users and developers. The tool, Glyph, also serves as the next iteration of Yuga ID, providing users with access to applications on the ApeChain.

According to Yuga Labs’ co-founder, Greg Solano, Glyph is designed in a manner that allows any ApeChain builder to utilize it. ApeChain is a network that powers decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, NFTs, digital collectibles, and metaverses. The network is powered by ApeCoin (APE).

Glyph makes interactions with ApeChain easy. The tool is a hub for wallet integration, fiat on-ramping, and on-chain activities. Yuga Labs partnered with several Made by Apes businesses and ApeChain-based NFT platforms to launch the product. These entities, including CryptoRunGames, WinPad, GeezOnApe, Mintotaurs, ApeCtrlCom, H00dOffical, Top Gobs, Deck0xyz, Foxy Fam, Typrical Tigers, DashBo, and Other Page, have all integrated Glyph into their decentralized applications (dApps).

As the next evolution of Yuga ID, users need to connect their existing Yuga ID profile to utilize the tool. Yuga Labs launched Yuga ID in July 2024, enabling users to interact with multiple native platforms using a single, centralized identifier. Users can now interact with Glyph with their Yuga ID or create new accounts on Glyph with just their X or email logins.

It is worth mentioning that a good number of Yuga Labs users have already interacted with Glyph. Solano revealed that people who have claimed some of the Formula One (F1) collectibles on ApeChain over the last few days used the tool.

As part of their partnership with the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the F1 racing team, BWT Alpine F1 Team, has released new digital collectibles featuring 2025 race posters. 

The F1 team entered a multi-year partnership with the APE Foundation about a year ago, making the Web3 entity its official sponsor. The alliance aims to unite token holders worldwide through a collaborative approach that incorporates race events and Web3 integrations. The race poster collectibles, released in late May, are some of the fruits of the partnership.

Yuga Labs stated that users who interacted with Glyph to collect the 2025 Race Posters encountered no gas fees or wallet setup requirements. Will the NFT developer eventually include fee sponsorship features for Glyph? Stay tuned for more updates.

Dubai-based Indian memecoin creator, Sahil Arora, called memecoin rug pull schemes the most lucrative opportunity in an interview with the New York Post. According to the May 17 article, Arora, who boasts of earning millions of dollars from over 100 memecoin rug pulls, said:

“The easiest way to make money is to deploy a meme coin, run it, and then sell as soon as you see [profits].”

In rug pulls or pump-and-dump schemes, bad actors create a worthless memecoin, use false or paid endorsements to promote it, and sell it as soon as the price goes up. The creators usually control a large portion of the tokens, and selling off the pile causes the price to crash.

Therefore, investors bear the losses while the creator makes off with millions. In August 2024, crypto sleuth ZachXBT estimated that Arora earned between $2 million and $3 million through memecoin scams.

Last year, Arora told The Defiant that it “took a lotta brain pulling that [rug pulls] off.” Arora, who is proud to have been called a “super villain,” brazenly told the Post that rug pulling is the “biggest casino on Earth right now.”

Veteran crypto investor Kyle Chassé told the Post:

“…at least in the casino, you know that maybe 60 percent of the time the house wins. In this [crypto] casino, the house is going to win 99 percent of the time.”

Arora added:

“If you don’t get rugged by me, you’re probably going to get rugged by someone else. So, you might as well get rugged by a person with a track record of some success rather than getting rugged by a random person on the Internet.”

Arora continues to carry out memecoin rug pulls

Last year, several celebrities accused Arora of using memecoins connected to them to orchestrate and pull off pump-and-dump scams. This included former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, Dimitri Leslie Roger, an American rapper known as Rich the Kid, and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.

Despite the accusations and Arora’s non-denial of involvement, he managed to pull off more rug pulls. In February 2025, Arora, who portrays a lavish lifestyle from money earned through rug pulls, launched the token BROCCOLI, an ode to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ’s) dog, using the same wallet he used to launch Jenner’s official memecoin in 2024. Arora told Decrypt that he made $6.5 million by dumping Brocolli tokens.

Pseudonymous crypto consultant Cryptony told the Post that the price of memecoins like Brocolli only goes up because of large demand after endorsements or promotions. He added:

“[In rug pulls] The rich get richer. For one person to make money, another person has to lose money. That’s where it comes from.”

Arora is one of many

Several influencers have been accused of promoting memecoins that crash in value. This includes YouTuber Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino, Faze Kay, and Haliey “Hawk Tuah Girl” Welch.

Denino reportedly emptied out the liquidity pool of his memecoin two weeks after launch. He admitted to stealing the money from investors, with his total loot standing at around $750,000.

Faze Kay was accused of promoting a token called Save the Kids that crashed. Welch, whose memecoin HAWK lost 95% of its value in minutes, however, was cleared by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of any wrongdoing, according to her manager.