Some news came out yesterday from The Shifters NFT project, with creator Doctor Troller claiming that hackers made off with $2 million from members of the project’s Discord. With that said, a couple of factors around the project and the hack announcement make it somewhat unusual in comparison to other recent NFT Discord hacks.
Was this simply the latest NFT Discord hack or might there be any more to the story?
Doctor Troller claims hackers stole $2M, calls out FUD in “toxic” NFT space
To sum up, the news of the apparent hack came in an article published on Yahoo via PR Newswire. The article contains several quotes from Andrew Brown aka Doctor Troller. To explain, the article credits Doctor Troller as being the creator of The Shifters NFT project.
Though the article headline refers to the alleged hack, the first half of the piece actually focuses on Doctor Troller’s criticisms of the NFT space. To illustrate, Troller’s first quote in the piece states:
“The level of FUD attacks on all new NFTs is now out of control. There is an out-of-control mob of influencers who just enjoy taking down new lines of collectibles.”
Indeed, the next round of quotes from Doctor Troller seems to point to more concern over FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) around The Shifters, rather than the massive amount of money he says was stolen from his NFT project’s community.
Doctor Troller is also quoted as saying, “The toxic nature of the NFT marketplace is now making it almost impossible for new launches of collectibles to be successful.”
While many project creators voice their frustrations about FUD around their projects, the focus of Troller’s quotes seems somewhat odd given the context. After all, most teams focus on the security of their Discords and the well-being of their communities in the aftermath of hacks.
Of course, not every NFT project creator needs to respond to hacks in the same way. In any case, it is unclear precisely how the FUD that Doctor Troller refers to relates to this specific $2 million hack.
News of The Shifters hack begs a few questions
With all that said, there are a few other things about The Shifters’ situation that are somewhat unusual.
For one thing, the article refers to Doctor Troller as the founder of The Shifters NFT project. However, the only founder listed on The Shifters’ official website is someone going by Denny aka Onslaught (@0xOnslaught on Twitter). As a matter of fact, Doctor Troller is not included as a team member on The Shifters site at all.
Publicly available trademark information does note Andrew Brown as the owner of “The Shifters” trademark as it pertains to digital 3D artwork. Evidently, the filing was submitted on Jan. 7, 2022.
Another key point is that, at the time of writing, there hasn’t been any acknowledgment of a hack on the project’s Twitter page. In contrast, most of the NFT Discord hacks we have covered in the past involved expedient warnings being sent out on Twitter by the teams involved. For example, there are the recent examples of MekaVerse, CryptoMories, Rare Bears, Doodles, and DeadFellaz.
In fact, it appears that The Shifters account has not sent a tweet since March 8th. What’s more, the invitation links to the project’s Discord from both the website and Twitter page are currently invalid.
Troller’s complaints of FUD may relate to allegations around his involvement in the Crocs League NFT project
Doctor Troller doesn’t have a very active Twitter account, although he does have over 800K followers on his Instagram page. Even so, information about him online varies from press releases filled with praise to accusations of misdoings.
It’s not too difficult to find some of the FUD that Doctor Troller is likely referring to in the release about The Shifters. To that end, there are various accusations stemming from his involvement in a 2021 NFT project called Crocs League. Specifically, there are a number of people calling the legitimacy of the Crocs League project into question on Twitter. By the same token, people cast doubt on The Shifters due to Doctor Troller’s involvement.
Most notably, the controversial Twitter account @NFTEthics posted a thread on The Shifters back on Jan. 21. In the thread, the account warns people about the project. It mainly focuses on the association with Doctor Troller, and Crocs League, which the account calls “a complete rug pull”.
As unfortunately common as NFT hacks have become, this one seems to have some context that makes it a bit different. It’s unclear what will happen with The Shifters project at the moment. You can find the piece on The Shifters with quotes from Doctor Troller here.
A day prior to publication, NFTevening reached out to The Shifters’ team for comment. As of the time of publication the team had not responded. We will update this article with their response, if any.
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