The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber bureau has arrested a 26-year-old man for allegedly defrauding nine investors of 210 million KRW (US$165,798) over the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of a cat-like character named CatSle.
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Fast facts
- According to the police, the unnamed suspect registered 10,000 CatSle NFTs on the OpenSea NFT marketplace from November last year.
- The CatSle project claimed that it would airdrop a fixed amount of KLAY cryptocurrency for every 10 purchases of the NFT. The police said none of the NFT buyers have received the crypto reward.
- The CatSle project declared it had been hacked and shut down in January after selling 5,000 NFTs to 298 people, raising 270 million KRW. So far, nine investors have come forward, but more victims are expected to make themselves known in the near future, according to police.
- The police also said they believe the price of the NFT may have been manipulated higher by artificial trading.
- The cyber bureau is also investigating four other individuals who helped design and promote the CatSle NFTs.
- Earlier this year, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service announced it would strengthen monitoring of new tradable assets such as NFTs.
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