Big Daddy Ape Club Rug Pull

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Big Daddy Ape Club Website

Big Daddy Ape Club offered a collection of 2,222 unique ape NFTs. Civic's verification process includes confirming control of project Twitter handle and domain, along with identity verification of project founders. Despite being verified by Civic, a decentralized identity verification firm, the project vanished after minting 2,222 ape-themed NFTs, with the creators walking away with $1.3 million, constituting the largest "rug pull" in the history of the Solana blockchain. After the incident, Civic CEO Chris Hart stated they are aware of the rug pull and are taking steps to assist the victims. Traders have requested Civic to release the personal information of Big Daddy Ape Club creators, and Hart mentioned their cooperation with law enforcement in the investigation. This isn't the first time the team behind Big Daddy Ape Club has executed such a scam, with reports indicating a history of similar fraudulent activities.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sakunoskem/status/1480890512773058562|Jan 13, 2023

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=2022-01-11-0

https://twitter.com/SolRarity_/status/1481041072923062273

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?collection=baller-ape-club

About Big Daddy Ape Club

"Big Daddy Ape Club is a private collection of 2,222 apes. It isn’t just about a monkey or a stunning PFP, our apes are designed to have utilities in Solana Blockchain."

"The value of each Ape is based off subjective information and is calculated by the amount of unique features, attributes and accessories that each Ape displays. There are more than 179 traits hand-drawn."

"Big Daddy Ape Club believes that the community is the most important part of an NFT project. So we will focus on developing our community, as we wish to bring as much value as we can to the world of NFTs. Many decisions will be taken after asking for BDAC-DAO opinion."

"Yes, the holder will able to stake Big Daddy Ape Club NFT to earn $BDAC."

"Yes, the only way to make a community happy is utilities, so we have BDAC-Hub."

"Our job is to make the 'Big Daddy Ape Club' become an all-in-one space for NFT Addicts! PFP= Done. Utilities = Done. Even Metaverse, just vote!"

The project promised a two-phased launch process.

"Phase I

- Mint 2,222 2D Big Daddy Ape. - Build BDAC-DAO using SolaLand. - Funding 50% minted revenue to BDAC-DAO for "Buy Back - Sweep The Floor", and... It's treat time; money will used for activities, rewards, airdrop bluechip and more for our holders. - Release a governance token for Big Daddy Ape Club, its called $BDAC. There is no monetary value for $BDAC because it will be used for our utilities only. - Release BDAC-Hub Beta with 2 utilities: BDAC-Staking, BDAC-Sweep.

Phase II

- Start a 3D Big Daddy Ape with 4,444 NFT, and 2D holder able to use $BDAC for exchange discount/whitelist/mint. - Release more utilities based on BDAC-DAO requests. - Release exclusive merch drops, holder will use $BDAC for claim merch. - Partnerships with other big projects to bring more benefits DAO to spend their $BDAC."

"1 SOL for Whitelist + OG, and 1.11 SOL for Public."

"We will be listed on Magic Eden and Solanart."

"5% and 50% royalty will be used for DAO, 50% will distributed to the holder."

Homepage:

Verification By Civic

The project was verified by Civic. Civic's verification process includes confirming control of project Twitter handle and domain, along with identity verification of project founders.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

Big Daddy Ape Club executed a $1.3 million scam, constituting the largest "rug pull" in the history of the Solana blockchain. The project vanished after minting 2,222 ape-themed NFTs.

Key Event Timeline - Big Daddy Ape Club Rug Pull

Date	Event	Description
December 22nd, 2021 2:36:32 PM MST	Prelaunch Website	The Big Daddy Ape Club website is captured pre-launch displaying simply the text "wen ? => soon".
January 7th, 2022 7:18:34 AM MST	Website Online Captured	The Big Daddy Ape Club website is online and captured along with a FAQ and description of the project, and a lot of example NFTs.
January 8th, 2022 7:47:41 PM MST	Reddit Inquiry	A Reddit thread started by user AR3NDT inquires about whether other members of the community have heard of the Big Daddy Ape Club NFT project.
January 11th, 2022 6:44:33 AM MST	Rugpull Posts	Reddit users start to report that they are unable to mint the NFTs as promised. One user reports that the website "just took 2 SOL and I didn’t get any NFT".
January 11th, 2022 5:28:00 PM MST	Julián Medina C	Twitter user Julián Medina C reports that "the same thing happened to" them in response to the Frosties NFT rug pull.
January 27th, 2022 8:59:31 PM MST	Coincu News Article	CoinCu reports that The creators of the "Big Daddy Ape Club" NFT collection executed a $1.3 million scam, constituting the largest "rug pull" in the history of the Solana blockchain. Despite being verified by Civic, a decentralized identity verification firm, the project vanished after minting 2,222 ape-themed NFTs. Civic CEO Chris Hart responded, stating they are aware of the rug pull and are taking steps to assist the victims. Civic's verification process includes confirming control of project Twitter handle and domain, along with identity verification of project founders. Traders have requested Civic to release the personal information of Big Daddy Ape Club creators, and Hart mentioned their cooperation with law enforcement in the investigation. This isn't the first time the team behind Big Daddy Ape Club has executed such a scam, with reports indicating a history of similar fraudulent activities.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $1,300,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

"I tried minting and it just took 2 SOL and I didn’t get any NFT"

"The exactly same thing happened today in the Solana chain with Bid Daddy Ape Club"

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Civic CEO Chris Hart responded, stating they are aware of the rug pull and are taking steps to assist the victims. Civic's verification process includes confirming control of project Twitter handle and domain, along with identity verification of project founders. Traders have requested Civic to release the personal information of Big Daddy Ape Club creators, and Hart mentioned their cooperation with law enforcement in the investigation. This isn't the first time the team behind Big Daddy Ape Club has executed such a scam, with reports indicating a history of similar fraudulent activities.

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.