EtherRock Sold For 444 Wei CoinMarketCope

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Ether Rock NFT

NFT Collector CoinMarketCope (formerly Dino_Dealer) accidentally sold his EtherRock NFT for 444 wei instead of 444 ethereum.

About CoinMarketCope

CoinMarketCope (formerly Dino_Dealer) has been a user of Twitter since January 2021.

Falling Out With Past Friend

According to Twitter user apez1lla, the EtherRock NFT was originally in a shared wallet.

About Ether Rock

EtherRock is one of the oldest NFT projects in existence having launched in 2017. There were only 100 EtherRock NFTs ever minted.

Launched in 2017, EtherRock was one of the first crypto collectible NFT-type projects on the Ethereum blockchain, having launched shortly after CryptoPunks. Only 100 rocks can ever be available, and each new virgin rock gets more and more expensive. This game is built entirely on the Ethereum blockchain, with a decentralized smart contract (deployed here) used to manage everything including the buying and selling of rocks, their prices and owners (though this website is still necessary so you can see pretty pictures of the rocks). These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE beyond being able to be brought and sold, and giving you a strong sense of pride in being an owner of 1 of the only 100 rocks in the game :)

"DinoDealer claims that he had intended to list his Ether Rock for 444 ETH — worth a jaw-dropping $1.2 million at current rates.

But instead, he confused this for the smaller denomination of Ether, meaning it was advertised for sale on OpenSea at just 444 WEI.

Before DinoDealer could realize his fatal error, a bot snapped up the rock for just $0.0012 — and instantly began offering the NFT to the marketplace for 234 ETH. If sold, this would result in a tidy profit of about $650,000."

The Reality

Transactions on most blockchains such as ethereum are permanent and irreversible. Transacting requires great care to ensure that everything is correct, especially when large sums of money are at stake.

There are a number of bots interacting with the ethereum blockchain. These bots will very quickly take advantage of any common arbitrage opportunity in the market.

What Happened

NFT trader DinoDealer accidentally listed his EtherRock NFT for a price of 444 Wei instead of 444 Ethereum. The NFT was quickly purchased by a trading bot.

Key Event Timeline - EtherRock Sold For 444 Wei DinoDealer

Date	Event	Description
March 6th, 2022 8:06:35 AM MST	Ether Rock 44 Sells For 444 WEI	Ether Rock NFT #44 is sold for 444 WEI.
March 9th, 2022 11:07:00 PM MST	Original Twitter Post	DinoDealer first shares his story on his Twitter account.
March 16th, 2022 12:26:50 PM MDT	Ether Rock 44 Sells For 234 ETH	The Ether Rock NFT #44 was resold for 234 ETH.
March 17th, 2022 10:05:35 PM MDT	Shared On Reddit	The story was shared on Reddit.
March 18th, 2022 12:50:00 PM MDT	CoinMarketCap Article	The story is picked up by CoinMarketCap.
March 19th, 2022	CoinGape Story	The story is shared on CoinGape.

Technical Details

Ether Rock was launched before standard such as ERC20, so the smart contract does not integrate well with other NFT services, and sale transactions are not automatically decoded on many services. (TBD - An expert can confirm this?)

The particular Ether Rock sales transaction involves the sale of Ether Rock NFT #44 for 444 wei, which was intended to be 444 eth. A sniper bot allegedly took advantage of the typo to remove the NFT from the victim's wallet and immediately attempted to resell the NFT. The NFT ultimately resold several days later.

TBD - How did the sale get established - via what platform or wallet? How was the transaction generated?

Total Amount Lost

There are two potential ways to calculate the loss amount:

• The intended sales price of 444 ETH. With a closing market price of $2,555.04 USD on March 6th, that creates a valuation of $1,134,437.76. Multiple sources cite a value of $1.2m, which would require a market price of $2,702.70 USD, which was the market price a few days earlier.
• The successful sales price of 234 ETH, using the closing market price of $2,772.06 USD from March 16th. That creates a valuation of $648,662.04 USD.

Given that it is uncertain the Ether Rock would have sold at the original price of 444 ETH, the total amount lost has been estimated at $649,000 USD.

Immediate Reactions

Dino Dealer shared his story on Twitter. The community was a mix of reactions.

Initial Tweet On Twitter

The initial Tweet by Dino Dealer.

How's your week?

Mine? I just erroneously listed @etherrock #44 for 444 wei instead of 444 eth

Bot sniped it in the same block and trying to flip for 234 eth

In one click my entire net worth of ~$1 million dollars, gone

Is there any hope?

Am I GMI?

Can snipers show mercy?

Twitter Community Reactions

Community reactions on Twitter were mixed, with some expressing sympathy, some condemning his actions, and others cracked jokes.

No WEI this happened.

Terrible news..wouldn't wish that on my enemy even

Kinda his own fault for not triple checking and also putting your entire net worth into a jpeg of a rock

How [on Earth] does one make this mistake

Should we call this a mistake or ignorant?

Ultimate Outcome

Ether Rock continue to be a popular NFT. apez1lla's Twitter account has since been suspended.

Total Amount Recovered

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

Ongoing Developments

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

Individual Prevention Policies

A high degree of care and understanding is required when using the blockchain.

Every approval on Web3 is an opportunity to lose all of the funds present in your wallet. Take the time to review the transaction in full. Fully check over the balance, permissions, and entire address which you are interacting with. Do not trust that your clipboard or any website front-end is guaranteed to provide an accurate address or transaction status. Always perform a test transaction prior to the first high-value transaction in any session.

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

Platform Prevention Policies

It is believed that this transaction happened privately. This case does not appear to have resulted in a loss to any platform. Platform could reduce the risk through increased user education, adding additional validation confirmations on their interface, or requiring a multi-signature approval.

Never take for granted the limited knowledge of users of your service and their tendency to skip past provided information. It is recommended to design a simple tutorial and quiz for new users which explains the basics of seed phrases, strong password generation, secure two-factor authentication, common fraud schemes, how ponzi schemes work, as well as other risks which are unique to the cryptocurrency space. This tutorial and quiz should ensure their understanding and be a standard part of the sign-up or download process which is difficult or impossible to skip.

Work with other industry platforms to set up a multi-signature wallet with private keys held separately by delegate signatories from seven prominent platforms and services within the industry. Establish requirements for contributions by all platforms and services, designed to be affordable for small platforms yet large enough to cover anticipated breach events. Any breach event can be brought forth by a member platform or a petition of 100 signatures for consideration by the delegate signatories. A vote of 4 or more delegate signatures is required to release any funds, which could partially or fully restore lost funds based on their assessment.

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

Regulatory Prevention Policies

This situation is unique as all aspects of the transaction were signed legitimately. Greater education could have brought about more awareness of the risks and more double checking on transactions. Better education and regulation could contribute to more users using platforms with security.

Create a standard tutorial and quiz for all new cryptocurrency participants, which is required to be completed once per participant. This tutorial and quiz should cover the basics of proper seed phrase protection, strong password generation, secure two-factor authentication, common fraud schemes, how to detect and guard against phishing attacks, how ponzi schemes work, as well as other risks which are unique to the cryptocurrency space.

While in this case, it is unlikely that any reimbursement could be made for a user error, having an insurance fund organization set up stands a greater chance of negotiating a return or reimbursement as compared to most other models.

Set up a multi-signature wallet with private keys held separately by delegate signatories from seven prominent platforms and services within the industry. Establish requirements for contributions by all platforms and services within the country, designed to be affordable for small platforms yet large enough to cover anticipated breach events. Any breach event can be brought forth by a member platform or a petition of 100 signatures for consideration by the delegate signatories. A vote of 4 or more delegate signatures is required to release any funds, which could partially or fully restore lost funds based on their assessment.

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