The way I read the article, the “worth millions” is the sum of the ransom demand.

The funny part is that the exploit is in the “smart” contract, ya know the thing that the blockchain keeps secure by forbidding any updates or patches.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I think of it like timeshare values. They’re really high …. Until you try to find someone who will actually buy it

    • KevonLooney
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      10 months ago

      This is a really good point. The same thing happens with stocks every day. You can’t sell at the listed price. Your “sell now” price is a bit lower (the bid part of the “bid-ask spread”). Maybe even lower than that.

      As soon as something negative happens, all the buyers at the current price dry up. There are still people who want to sell (more of them, because of the bad news) so they drop the price until enough buyers show up.

      Tiny markets like NFTs have huge bid-ask spreads already. Maybe $1000 on a $20K NFT. So any negative news will cause wild price swings within minutes. Investing all your money in an illiquid asset with no income or intrinsic value backing it is… not smart.