Nike's COO Loses His NFTs In Massive Hack

RTFKT is a massively profitable next-generation cryptocurrency brand acquired by Nike in December 2021 that is gaining steam in the digital wearable space and has collaborated with artist Takashi Murakami on content. In an evident phishing attack on Monday, Gopalani lost his huge treasure trove of NFTs to a scammer.

According to OpenSea data, the hacker used two wallets to steal over $173,000 in NFTs from Gopalani's wallet, such as 19 CloneX NFTs worth more than $138,000, 18 RTKFT Space Pods (over $6,300 total), 17 Loot Pods ($6,200), 11 CryptoKicks ($3,000), 19 RTFKT Animus Eggs ($20,200), and much more.

It's worth mentioning that these are lowball estimates based on each collection's floor price, so Gopalani's previous holdings, which included a sought-after Murakami CloneX, #17088, could resell for much more. 

At the time of writing, one of the attackers' wallets appears to be empty, while the other still has many of the COO's assets on display.

While it's unclear how the phishing assault happened, a response from RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo suggests that Gopalani may have inadvertently provided sensitive information to a hacker posing as an Apple representative.

Cardillo denied that his response was very corporate and hinted that a legal investigation was underway, declaring on Twitter that a lawful agency needed to be able to do an investigation properly as the reason why more details could not be shared. 

CloneX #17088, which is still Gopalani's Twitter profile picture, has already changed ownership twice since his wallet was emptied a day ago. The NFT is now owned by the holder of lyx.eth, who also possesses two other CloneX NFTs.

lyx.eth stated in a message that they were unaware they were purchasing the COO's stolen NFT and had been looking to purchase an NFT similar to Gopalani's for over half a year.

According to Lyx, RTFKT has already attempted to reclaim the stolen NFT.

"I've talked with some RTFKT members, but I need to think about what to do," Lyx told Decrypt.

When asked if he planned to sell or return the NFT, Lyx said they needed clarification.

What kind of security measures should Nike have in place to protect against attacks like this? Let us know your thoughts by sharing this article on social media.

*Article Image Credits to: Zenith Capital / RTFKT*