A novel rug-pull alert was issued on Tuesday after crypto sleuth ZachXBT leaked on-chain details of an alleged hack suffered by an NFT project last month. The project’s technical director announced that a response was in the works, but it ultimately disappeared as criticism mounted.

Nuddies NFTs, hack or rug pull?

An on-chain detective named ZachXBT exposed the alleged misuse of funds by the CTO of the Nuddies NFT NFT project. In a now-deleted post, chief technology officer Kyle explained that the project was “pivoted from its previous founder” and built differently than other NFT projects.

A brief investigation into how @kyledegods he faked the hack and stole SOL from his project @NuddiesNFT before spending them on NFTs and lying to holders about how devastated he was by the incident.

On March 3, 2024, Kyle posted to his Discord server claiming that his wallets… pic.twitter.com/4ne6dtVyA5

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 2, 2024

According to the crypto detective, Kyle faked a hack that seemingly stole the project’s funds. On March 3, the alleged perpetrator posted on the Nuddies NFT Discord server informing us of the hack.

The post claimed that Kyle’s Mac had been hacked, even though he “didn’t click on any malicious links.” A technology executive stated that his computer had a “zombie process” running for an undetermined amount of time.

This “mini program” gave control of the computer to the “hacker”. Through the TeamViewer application, the attacker gained access to Kyle’s project and wallets. The post further explained that SOL 90, or approximately $17,000 in today’s prices, was taken from the Nuddies NFT creator’s wallet.

Moreover, the hacker allegedly took control of Kyle’s Discord and stole 150 SOL from his wallets, worth approximately $28,300. He claimed at the time that he was “psychologically damaged” by the loss of money from the project’s treasury.

SOL is trading at $188.43 in the 3-day chart. Source: SOLUSDT on Tradingview.com

Nevertheless, on-chain data collected by ZachXBT tells a different story. According to the crypto detective, the CTO allegedly lied to cryptocurrency holders and stole 94 SOL worth $12,000 when the incident occurred.

The post shows that funds were transferred from the Nuddies Royalty Wallet to the exchange depository at 8:20 UTC that day. The chain researcher claims that the target transaction has been found using timing analysis. The transaction made on one of Kyle’s wallets was 3.42 ETH, or approximately $11,700, at 8:21 UTC.

Apparently, two NFTs were purchased for ETH: DeGods 2921 and y00t 10991. The DeGod NFT was used as the CTO’s profile picture on X until yesterday.

CTO responds to accusations and then disappears

The accusations did not escape the attention of the suspect who sent on his X account that he was “preparing a response” with a wink emoji. After changing his profile picture, Kyle responded to some users’ questions about his credibility, to which he replied that he “has a clear conscience.”

Now-deleted post from Nuddies' CTO Kyle. Source: X

Early Wednesday morning, the Nuddies NFT account shared a now-deleted post stating that the creator’s wallet had been “filled with $12,000.” USD”. In the post, Kyle assured that his previous claims about his intention to replenish his portfolio are legitimate.

The CTO also stated that he was “waiting for an airdrop of W” to fulfill his promise rather than sell his DeAsset. Additionally, he “withdrew” from the project after handing over the access keys to two community members.

Recovered excerpt from the deleted Nuddies NFT post. Source: X

However, the story doesn’t end there. Kyle and Nuddies NFT’s account was deleted a few hours after the post was published. It looks like the Nuddies website is down because reported by user X

The future of the project is uncertain because one of the community members Kyle gave the access keys to was unaware of the situation. NFT artist Juiceddd is one of two people behind the project.

Artist explained that he was responsible for redrawing the entire Nuddies collection and adding “over 70 new features”. Furthermore, Juiceddd stated that he “woke up this morning and realized he owned everything.” The artist considers presenting his point of view on this event thinks that in such situations the artist usually “gets fucked”.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com