Fat-finger fault! A popular NFT Bored Ape sells for 1/100th of its market value

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The significance of a misplaced decimal point, thanks to a fat-finger error manifested itself on Openseas last week as a popular Bored Ape artwork was sold for a mere $3,015, almost at 1/100th of its original market valuation of  $3,00,000.

Bloomberg reported that lack of concentration led to a very expensive mistake on the part of a seller namely Maxnut, who had intended to list Bored Ape number 3,547 for 75 ETH, which translates to almost $3,00,000.

Notably, a fat-finger error is a human mistake caused by inputting wrong information in the financial markets, whereby the order size is far greater or lower than what was intended.

But instead, the NFT ended up being catalogued for a meagre $0.75($2,989). The artwork was immediately lapped up by an automated account and set for sale again at nearly $250,000 within a few seconds. Max had previously brought this valuable NFT for 1 ETH on May 30, 2021, when Ethereum was trading at $2,290.

On being asked about his goof-up, Max told CNET that it was a "lapse of concentration. I list a lot of items every day and just wasn’t paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 ETH [$34,000] of gas fees so it instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone.”

What are Bored Apes?

Consisting of just 10,000 unique digital collectables, generated programmatically, Bored Apes is an extremely popular NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched in April 2021, each digital artwork in this collection is made up of computer scripts mixing and matching an array of around 170 possible traits, including expression, headwear, clothing, and more. Possessing an ape also gives one access to the exclusive BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) which boasts of celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and more. Per recent news reports, the club is also planning to launch a play-to-earn game, utilising the Bored Apes NFT early next year.