NFT Trader Hanwe Chang’s Ingenious Move Nets $1.5 Million on Blur Marketplace – Here’s What Happened

NFT

Author

Fredrik Vold

Author

Fredrik Vold

Author Profile

Share

Copied

Last updated:

October 23, 2023 05:32 EDT

Why Trust Cryptonews

Cryptonews has covered the cryptocurrency industry topics since 2017, aiming to provide informative insights to our readers. Our journalists and analysts have extensive experience in market analysis and blockchain technologies. We strive to maintain high editorial standards, focusing on factual accuracy and balanced reporting across all areas - from cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects to industry events, products, and technological developments. Our ongoing presence in the industry reflects our commitment to delivering relevant information in the evolving world of digital assets. Read more about Cryptonews

Ad Disclosure

We believe in full transparency with our readers. Some of our content includes affiliate links, and we may earn a commission through these partnerships. Read more

An NFT trader that goes by the name Hanwe Chang has made 800 ETH, worth almost $1.5 million, after tricking a bot into buying his NFTs at elevated prices.

Writing on the social media platform X on this weekend, Hanwe Chang claimed that a bot was copying all of his NFT bids on Blur, a new NFT marketplace that has recently overtaken the previously dominant OpenSea as the top marketplace by volume.

“Noticed that someone’s bot was copying my bids on Blur, so I decided to trick him… Made 800 ETH profit thanksss,” Chang wrote, while sharing a screenshot of 12 transactions of NFTs from the Azuki collection that were sold for 50 ETH each.

Azuki is a recently released NFT collection that raised near $40 million during its launch.

Noticed that someone's bot was copying my bids on Blur, so I decided to trick him…

Made 800 ETH profit thanksss pic.twitter.com/KlaXKUFUBK

— Hanwe (@HanweChang) August 5, 2023

Placed bids on his own NFT sale

The post and screenshot shared by Chang quickly sparked discussions in the NFT community on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, given that the most recent trade of a similar NFT brought in only 5 ETH.

On-chain data from Etherscan shows that the 12 NFTs were gathered by Chang in an Ethereum wallet, and that profits from the trade were sent to a wallet labelled as hanwe.eth.

According to X user A-Raving-Ape.eth, what appears to have happened is that Chang has placed bids on the NFTs he already owned, known that a bot would copy his bids.

As a result, Chang appears to have successfully tricked the bot to buy his NFTs at prices that were massively inflated by his own bidding.

“This is an epic case of [player versus player] in the current NFT trading market,” the user wrote.

Context on how @HanweChang executed a plan to perfection and made 800e by selling "Off White A – Background color" azuki at 50e each and azuki elementals at 15e each.

This is an epic case of PvP in the current NFT trading market ⚔️

Hanwe has been coasting at the top spot of… pic.twitter.com/M8Ujm8CquJ

— A-Raving-Ape.eth 🍌 (@a_raving_ape) August 5, 2023

Another community member agreed with the overall theory of how the trade was made, but warned others that Chang’s tweet about the trade “will go down as the dumbest of all time.”

“Hanwe admits to ‘Bid Spoofing’ or ‘Shill Bidding’ — an illegal market activity of Fraud or Wire Fraud,” the user wrote.

https://www.twitter.com/dgoldzz/status/1687909659720429568