He got a $1.5M CryptoPunk for just $23K, and $0.00000000000001 could’ve stopped it!
Here's how smart contract logic might make you a millionaire
CryptoPunks is the largest NFT collection with a total volume of 1.3M $ETH !
They are so rare that none are listed for sale, and past transactions show them selling for between 30ETH and 550ETH, depending on rarity.
A few days ago, the address 0x282a managed to snag Punk #2386 for just 10 ETH.
This Punk has an ape attribute, making it highly rare. Only 24 out of 10,000 have this trait.
Its estimated value is between $1.5M and $2M, but he got it for $23K by taking advantage of a smart contract mechanism.
What happened?
Punk #2386 was fractionalized in 2020 through a protocol that locked the NFT and distributed its value across 10,000 ERC-20 tokens, allowing multiple people to invest in a single Punk.
This platform was called Nitfex.
Punk #2386 had 257 shareholders, meaning 257 people held a portion of the 10,000 Ape Punk tokens.
Although Nitfex shut down, the smart contracts behind it are still live.
One function in the contract, "lockShardsAndClaim," allows any shareholder to initiate a "Shotgun" offer—this lets a shareholder propose a price for the NFT, which would then be divided among the other shareholders.
Shareholders have 14 days to submit a counteroffer.
If no one counters within 14 days, the NFT is transferred to the person who initiated the offer.
On August 28, address 0x282a triggered this function and offered 10 ETH for Punk #2386 (about 0.001 ETH per share).
To cancel this low offer, a stakeholder must submit a slightly higher counteroffer.
The minimum required amount for the counteroffer was 1,000,000,010,000 Wei.
gmoney, the only shareholder who noticed, tried to counter with 1,000,000,000,000 Wei.
Unfortunately, he was 100,000 Wei short of the required minimum.
If just one more shareholder had added 100,000 Wei (worth about $0.00000000000001), the sale would have been blocked.
Instead, the sale went through, and 0x282a ended up acquiring a $1.5M NFT for just $23K.
This case highlights the rarity of individuals who can understand and interact with a smart contract without a front-end.
Even when the platform disappears, the contract remains on-chain forever, open for anyone to interact with.
There are other similar cases out there.
