An Ethereum (ETH) wallet belonging to actor Bill Murray was hacked hours after receiving funds from a non-fungible tokens (NFTs) auction inspired by his life.
The actor lost the 119.2 ETH raised from the auction, although investigations are ongoing to identify the perpetrator, CoinDesk reported on September 2.
On-chain analysis data by Etherscan indicates that the hacker began retrieving the funds on September 1. Furthermore, the actor’s team noted that the bad actor tried to steal about 800 NFTs from Murray’s personal collection but the plot was foiled.
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Following the attempt, the actor’s wallet security team from NFT consultancy platform Project Venkman moved the collection to a pair of safehouse wallets.
Funds transferred to Binance linked address
Initial investigations indicate that the hacker transferred the stolen funds to an address linked to crypto exchange Binance and Union Chain. At the same time, it is not yet clear how the hacker managed to gain access to the funds.
Murray’s team is also engaging with crypto analysis firm Chainalysis to conduct a forensic audit into the incident.
“We engaged Chainalysis within 10 minutes of learning of the attack last night. They’ll have a bigger report on that, and they’re still investigating all of the threads,” said Gavin Gilles from Project Venkman.
Most of the remaining collectibles were set to be sold next week, along with other NFTs the actor owns through his business partners. NFTs from the collection include exclusive anecdotes and stories from Murray.
The actor’s team has also filed a police report following the incident to commence investigations.
The NFT auction was completed on August 31 as part of an initiative to raise funds for the Chive Charities initiative. The proceeds were to support the care of a three-year-old girl identified as Evelyn, who is contending with the effects of a rare CLDN5 gene mutation and intractable epilepsy.
Interestingly, following the loss, a Coinbase user sent 120 ETH to Chive Charities to replace the lost amount.
