🥛 OpenSea Users Get Tricked out of Millions + 🎨 The Banksy of NFTs

GM, this is the Milk Road. The email that makes you smarter about crypto. 

It’s Monday morning. Pour yourself a bowl of fruity pebbles, and let us tell you what you missed this weekend:

• 🌊 OpenSea users get tricked out of $1.7M+

• 🏧 Sequoia creates a $500M Crypto Fund

• 📺 An amazing video

• 🎨 The Banksy of NFTs

OpenSea users get tricked out of $1.7M+

I was freaking out on Saturday night. 

I was scrolling twitter, and saw people saying “opensea hacked’, “stolen NFTs” and everyone was scrambling to protect their wallet. 

Ouch. So what happened? Here’s what we know: 

1/ Someone sent a “fake” email, impersonating OpenSea (phishing attack):

2/ If you clicked the fake email and then connected your wallet on the fake OpenSea site - the hacker had access to your wallet.

3/ The hacker waited three weeks and then swiped NFTs worth $1.7m+ from 32 users in the span of minutes (which just happened to be while the OpenSea CTO was on stage speaking at ETH Denver)

4/ They stole some blue chip NFTs (including Doodles, Mutant Apes, and CloneX) and quickly sold them (below market price, so they would sell fast)

5/ They then sent back some NFTs and ETH to the people they stole from…maybe they felt a little remorse and wanted to turn down the heat?

5/ The OpenSea CEO & CTO came out and said OpenSea itself wasn’t hacked, but 32 users were tricked by a phishing email. (click here to read their detailed explanation)

My Two Cents: 

Every system has pros and cons. 

Last week, we talked about the cons of the traditional financial system when Canada froze the protesters bank accounts. 

This week, we see the cons of crypto’s system.

NFTs and coins are “bearer assets”. Whoever has it, owns it.

If someone steals cash out of your wallet, your cash is gone.

There’s nobody to call and reverse the transaction (though people are working on really interesting ways to fix this, including Vitalik’s “social recovery wallets” idea).

The lesson here is TAKE TIME TO SECURE YOUR BAG! (maybe we should do a Milk Road Security Guide…)

Sequoia Creates a $500M Crypto Fund

Sequoia is the big daddy of venture capital. 

They were big investors in Apple, Google, WhatsApp, Zoom, PayPal… you know, just a few mom & pop businesses. 

The main guy at Sequioa is Roelof Botha. He used to be the CFO of PayPal, and now runs the fund. 

I actually had a pitch meeting with Roelof once. He came in calm, very polite. Wearing glasses. 

Breaking Bad fans - just imagine Gus, but instead of running a fried chicken shop, he ran a billion dollar venture fund.

He said we might be “too early”. 

I asked, “oh, you don’t invest in early stage companies?” 

He replied “well, I invested in YouTube when it had less than 10,000 users” 

I paused. He let me sit in the silence.. 

Finally I figured out the message hidden in the silence:  “you ain't YouTube, bitch!”

OK, flash back to present day.

Sequoia has started investing heavily in crypto (20% of last years deals were crypto companies). And now, they announced a $500M+ fund focused on liquid tokens. (e.g. they could just buy ETH if they wanted).

The more big money that comes into the space, the better. Having huge players like Sequioa brings credibility (for the next big player) and also reduces volatility for the rest of us.

Now, a word from our partner, Outer 🛋️

Working from home is great... I don’t miss the cubicle at all. But it does get pretty stuffy in my house all day.  That’s why I spend a ton of time in my backyard on my outdoor sofa by Outer. 

They have awesome styles, and it’s super durable & weather-proof.

They're selling like crazy, so check them out here before Spring arrives.

P.S. I particularly can't get enough of this three-seater

Watch this video, it's amazing

This video is so good. Gave me a good laugh.

Not just a little chuckle. I’m talking about a full-on, knee-slapping laugh that made my wife give me the side eye. 

The Banksy of NFTs

You know Banksy, right?

The mystery street artist. 

The person who sold this balloon painting for $4m, and as soon as the sale went through, the painting automatically shredded itself. 

Well, there’s an NFT artist giving me Banksy vibes. His name is SHL0MS.

A few months ago, he blew up a toilet and auctioned off the shards.

And now, he blew up a Lamborghini, took photos of 999 shards and is auctioning them off this week: 

Lambo's go for ~$225,000, so just to break even on the car, each shard needs to go for $250 (~0.09E).  I'm taking the over on that happening, Scott.

I'll be watching this auction closely and might even participate (DYOR plz) for the sheer absurdity of owning a blown up Lamborghini 😂

See ya tomorrow,

Shaan "Chocolate Milk" Puri and Ben "2% Milk" Levy

What'd you think of today's email?

• 🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛 F**king great

• 🥛🥛🥛 Meh, do better

• 🥛 You didn't bring the heat

Vitalik gave us a week's worth of photos at ETHDenver 😂 😂