Nifty News: Christie’s NFT expert to lead CryptoPunks, fake heiress launches NFT collection

Noah Davis, the nonfungible token (NFT) specialist at auction house Christie’s, has said he’s leaving the position in July to take up a post as brand lead for the CryptoPunks NFT collection with Yuga Labs.

Announcing the move on Sunday in a Twitter thread, Davis looked to quash any anxieties holders had regarding the future of one of the oldest NFT projects, saying he “will not f*ck with the punks.”

What does that mean? It means no Punks on lunchboxes or cringe TV shows/shitty movies. It means no arbitrary rushed utility or thoughtless airdrops. It means if you love your Punk(s) because they are what they are (just Punks) then you and I see eye to eye…

— Noah (@NonFungibleNoah) June 19, 2022

He invited CryptoPunk owners to schedule a talk with him about the project’s future at the NFT NYC event and said the new position wouldn’t take away from his own NFT project.

Davis is responsible for the record-breaking auction of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days NFT, which sold for over $69 million in March 2021.

Yuga Labs acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks collection from Larva Labs in March, saying it would turn over full commercial rights to the owners, a promise yet to be realized.

But, Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow aka Gargamel addressed the holdup in a series of tweets on Sunday, writing it was “too significant to rush” and that new terms “will be rolling out in the next couple of weeks.”

With the announcement of Davis’ move and the new terms set to take effect soon, some are alleging that insiders had prior knowledge of the information, citing the surging sales volume of the collection.

Ok so no one's going to address the obvious insider trading that happened in the last 48 hours?Chart: @punk9059 https://t.co/56s56D5Nw1 pic.twitter.com/beNkWbAc2Y

— Chainleft (@ChainLeftist) June 19, 2022

According to OpenSea, 39 sales of the CryptoPunks collection have taken place since the announcement, with 101 sales in total on Sunday, up from the only 19 sold the day prior, on Saturday.

Convicted scammer “reinvents” herself with NFTs

Convicted con-artist and fraudster Anna Sorokin, who from 2013 to 2017 pretended to be the wealthy German heiress “Anna Delvey” to defraud acquaintances and business of over $275,000, has started an NFT collection.

Titled Reinventing Anna, the collection features 2,000 NFTs for 0.1 Ether (ETH) each, or about $110 at the time of writing. It is marketed as a way for “fans to interact with Anna” and access private “ask-me-anything’s” with Sorokin.

Related: NFT trading volume surges amid market and floor price crash

The collection will feature 20 “gold edition cards,” which grant owners the possibility of a one-on-one phone call or in-person visit with the so-called “renowned socialite.”

The collection’s name is a play on the Inventing Anna Netflix drama miniseries released earlier this year, the subject of which is inspired by Sorokin’s story.

“I see this first drop as an opportunity to directly connect with my audience and take charge of the narrative that's been largely outside of my control,” Sorokin wrote in an Instagram post regarding the collection.

It’s unknown how NFT holders will be able to visit her in person, however. Since March 2021, Sorokin has been held by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying her visa and faces deportation to Germany.

Duppies followers targeted in phishing scam

Duppies, an upcoming Solana NFT project from the same team as the popular “DeGods” collection, had its Twitter account hacked on Saturday, with attackers tweeting a link to a “stealth mint” of the NFTs.

The link was a phishing website, and users who connected their wallets and attempted to mint had their wallets drained of all funds. One Twitter user wrote they lost 650 Solana (SOL), worth around $18,850, from the attack.

In Twitter Spaces after the attack, the creator of the upcoming collection known as Frank joined security auditor Code Monkey to explain how the attack happened.

The auditor said the attacker likely accessed the Duppies Twitter account in a targeted SIM swap attack.

The attack works by scammers contacting the phone provider of the mobile number holder and trick the carrier into swapping the mobile number to a SIM card in their control. From there, the attacker can bypass any two-factor authentication on the account and gain access.

More Nifty News

Watchmaker TAG Heuer has released a watch that can pair with a smartphone to show NFTs on the watch face and also connect to the blockchain to verify the NFT is owned by the wearer.

Despite warnings from the nation’s authorities, the number of NFT and digital collectible platforms in China has seen a five times increase since February 2022, going from just over 100 to over 500, according to local state-owned media.