Elite NFT CryptoPunk Accidentally Destroyed by Owner

The painful accident triggered yet another round of discussion about the UX/UI issues of modern Web3 services. Some of them can be too tricky even for cryptocurrency experts.

CryptoPunk #685 blue-chip NFT is lost forever: Reasons

Today, on March 25, 2023, cryptocurrency user Brandon Riley, holder of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Bitcoin Ordinals top NFTs, announced that he destroyed another gem CryptoPunk #685 by accident.

Today I accidentally burned a @cryptopunksnfts trying to wrap punk 685.

I was so focused on following the instructions exactly, that I slipped up, destroying a third of of my net worth in a single transaction. @yugalabs please sell me the @v1punks 685 as a consolation. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/jHoTGvlc7j

— Brandon Riley (@vitalitygrowth) March 25, 2023

Yesterday he decided to borrow money using his CryptoPunk as the collateral. However, being unfamiliar with the details of usage of proxy contracts, he approved sending his NFT to a burn address. He admitted that he had no experience working with wrapped NFTs before.

He bought this NFT only 12 days ago for 77 Ethers (ETH) or almost $135,000 in current prices. Riley shared that it is about one third of his net worth.

With a slice of irony, he asked NFT creator Yuga Labs to send him the corresponding token from their another collection that was launched in 2017 before the NFT euphoria started.

Community shows support

Previously, he planned to hold his CryptoPunk #685 for a decade: Riley treated his latest purchases as long-term investments in the top league of NFTs.

His Twitter followers showed support to him. Some speakers criticized Web3 services for their reluctance to build intuitive user interfaces for basic operations.

Also, some early-stage collection authors have already promised to send their artworks to Riley.