Someone "kidnapped" Seth Green's NFT ape and now he cannot make a show based on it
Without the usage rights to the online characters, the show cannot move forward
Well, Seth Green’s terrible idea for a Bored Ape series based on the characters he accrued has sunk. The actor fell victim to a common phishing scam and several of the images were stolen from his crypto wallet, including one Bored Ape worth $200,000.
He recently took to Twitter, begging fellow crypto bros to not purchase the stolen NFTs and even attempted to contact someone who did buy one.
“Well frens it happened to me. Got phished and had 4NFT stolen,” Green wrote on Twitter on May 17. “Please don’t buy or trade these while I work to resolve: @DarkWing84 looks like you bought my stolen ape—hit me up so we can fix it.”
For Green, this phishing stalls his plans for a series titled White Horse Tavern, which follows the premise: “What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?” You can see the haloed Bored Ape named Fred Simian in a trailer for White Horse Tavern.
On Saturday, in an interview with crypto hype man Gary Vaynerchuk, Green shared more details about the “kidnapping” of his precious ape.
“I bought that ape in July 2021, and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show,” Green tells Vaynerchuk during VeeCon. “Then days before—his name is Fred by the way—days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped.”
The show may move forward in the unlikely event that Green’s NFTs are returned to him, but for now whoever stole them owns the usage rights due to the completely absurd way that NFTs and the blockchain are designed to work. Maybe the thief is the good guy in all of this, saving us from viewing a show about a Bored Ape bartender? Either way, Green’s still doing everything he can to bring them home.
“Guys, if there’s a door to kick in, I promise I’m gonna kick in the door for us.”