Recent Developments in the NFT Space: Fraud Plea, Phishing Campaign, Transaction Fee Flip, and Gaming NFT Marketplace

Aurelien Michel, the creator of a knock-off Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT collection called Mutant Ape Planet, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a New York federal court. Michel defrauded investors of $3 million in a rug pull scheme where he promised rewards and benefits to investors but failed to deliver. Instead, he used the proceeds for personal gain. Michel now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. In other news, users of NFT marketplace OpenSea have received a phishing email campaign from attackers pretending to be OpenSea. While OpenSea assured its users that there was no hack, a developer claimed to have received a phishing email, suggesting that contacts may have been exfiltrated from OpenSea. Bitcoin transaction fees have surpassed Ethereum's as the market shows renewed interest in Bitcoin Ordinals, a tool for creating NFT-like assets and tokens. Finally, game distributor G2A has launched an NFT marketplace focused on Web3 games, aiming to expand its offerings in the blockchain gaming space.