RTFKT COO Loses His NFTs Worth $173,000 in Phishing Hack

Nikhil Gopalani, the COO at RTFKT, is starting the year on a sad note after his NFT wallet was compromised in a phishing attack. This resulted in the loss of most of his portfolio of digital collectibles, worth a fortune, in an instant.

The COO went on Twitter on Tuesday to break the news, sounding quite depressed by the whole ordeal. Unfortunately, some of his valuable pieces have changed hands several times, despite the fact that some buyers appear to be unaware of their origin.

As of the time of creating this piece, his NFT wallet holds only a single piece. This is a Death Row Records NFT of the "Clone X Theme Song," worth about $59.

The incredible thing about blockchain technology is its ability to trace transactions. After some digging, the picture gets clearer. OpenSea data shows the attacker used two wallets to steal Gopalani’s entire stash, worth over $173,000. This amount could be higher given that it’s a rough estimate using the pieces' floor prices.

Valuable Pieces Made Up Gopalani's Stolen NFT Collection

The portfolio includes 19 CloneX NFTs estimated to be worth about $138,000. Next, there are 18 RTKFT Space Pods worth over $6,300, 17 Loot Pods costing over $6,200, 11 CryptoKicks worth over $3,000, 19 RTKFT Animus Eggs worth over $20,200, and many others.

Significantly, one of the most valuable pieces in the portfolio was the highly desired Murakami CloneX, #17088. It remains Gopalan’s Twitter profile picture and has already changed hands twice. The current owner claims to be clueless about the hack. Furthermore, he went on Twitter to express his excitement about getting his hands on the coveted piece.

RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo suggested that Gopalani accidentally gave confidential information to a hacker who was pretending to be an Apple representative.

Cardillo said in a tweet that: “For legal purposes, we won't be able to go in deeper details until further notice”.

That said, RTFKT is a highly profitable next-generation crypto brand that Nike bought over a year ago. It specializes in creating digital wearables and has created content with Takashi Murakami, a renowned artist.