A major NFT collector accidentally spent $150k on his own joke domain name

Jimmy Fallon shows off a Bored Ape, confused

(Image credit: The Tonight Show)

One of the biggest collectors of Bored Apes has embarrassed himself by accidentally spending over $150,000 on his own joke domain name.

Franklinisbored, whose Ape collection currently numbers at 57 hideous monkeys, has a hobby of making up weird Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains—basically usernames that Ethereum traders can use instead of having to remember 64-character addresses—and placing absurdly large bids on them. Doing so compels blockchain-monitoring Twitter bots to tweet out both the domain name and bid amount to their followers for Franklin's amusement.

That's exactly what happened this time, too. Franklin generated a silly new ENS domain and put a bid of 100 ETH ($150k) on it. What was different was this one attracted a genuine bid of 1.9 ETH (nearly $2,900) too, which he quickly accepted. Tragicomedy struck when, just as Franklin was tweeting about his sudden windfall, the new owner accepted Franklin's own joke bid for the domain, which he had forgotten to cancel in the afterglow of the unexpected sale. This all happened within 15 minutes.

The name of the domain was stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth.

Franklin sent the buyer their original 1.9 ETH alongside an explanatory NFT asking for a show of compassion and a refund of his 100 ETH (minus fees). He received neither. What he got instead was an NFT from the 'Franklin ENS Nutz' collection that read, "No, thank you for the money though".

In fairness Franklin has been pretty relaxed about the whole thing, tweeting, "This will be the joke and bag fumble of the century," and admitting that he deserves "all the jokes and criticism". Of course, anyone who owns 57 of the hottest JPEGs in town probably has enough money to weather a $150k blow anyway.

NFTs have had an even rougher ride than usual recently, and they've never been popular in our neck of the woods. Whether it's Seth Green's kidnapped ape (since returned, thank heavens), Microsoft's statement that NFTs are at odds with Minecraft's values, or just one of the many stories of scams, stitch-ups, and expensive mistakes that seem to pour out of the crypto sphere, the entire technology feels more and more like dark comedy all the time. But hey, maybe those Square Enix NFTs will turn the whole thing around. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

Thanks, Web3IsGoingGreat.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.