Anonymous may have set sights on BAYC for alleged connections to Nazi imagery Anonymous may have set sights on BAYC for alleged connections to Nazi imagery
An Anonymous Facebook account has aligned itself with Ryder Ripps in his pursuit to "out" BAYC as having roots in Nazi symbology declaring "expect us" in reference to Yuga Labs.
3 min read
Updated: Aug. 9, 2022 at 12:40 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
EDITOR’S NOTE August 9, 12 PM BST: The Anonymous account in question has since deleted the Facebook post referenced in this article. CryptoSlate has reached out for comment.
Anonymous, the global renown hacker group, appears to have aimed its sights at Yuga Labs following a Facebook post from a verified Anonymous account.
The post references Nxg4n, Jeremy Cahen, and Ryder Ripps, who have all been extremely vocal recently advancing claims that Bored Ape Yacht Club has Nazi origins. The post has since been deleted, and CryptoSlate has reached out for comment as to the reason for its removal. An archived copy is displayed below.
The account that is called out directly is nxg4n, which exclusively tweets about Yuga Labs and BAYC, continuing the thread that has led to Ryder Ripps being sued by Yuga Labs. The claims revolved around the theory that the imagery and language of Yuga Labs can be linked to Nazi content. The biggest indicator of the Nazi ties is the similarity of the BAYC logo to Nazi symbology, as shown below.
so you're telling me a fully tattooed hindu jew who only eats cheeseburgers named his company "yuga labs" after the "kali yuga", a term neo nazi richard spenser has discussed for 7 years, and the logo for the company looks like a nazi emblem… just by coincidence? lol.. pic.twitter.com/ySBlaqAg0c
— RYDER-RIPPS.ETH 🔜 (@ryder_ripps) August 5, 2022
Yuga Labs is suing Ryder Ripps for,
“FALSE DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN, FALSE ADVERTISING, CYBERSQUATTING, TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT, UNFAIR COMPETITION, UNJUST ENRICHMENT, CONVERSION, AND TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE”
Since the lawsuit was filed, Ryder Ripps has continued his campaign against Yuga Labs, tweeting Monday that “they are suing me over something they refuse to even show.”
did you know that Kali Yuga Labs is suing me over this logo i made, but they didn't even include an image of it in the lawsuit? they are suing me over something they refuse to even show. pic.twitter.com/7K67P5iIkI
— RYDER-RIPPS.ETH 🔜 (@ryder_ripps) August 8, 2022
In a post on Sunday, nxg4n stated that they will be taking “a slightly different approach” to that of Ryder Ripps in allegedly exposing Yuga Labs for its apparent ties to Nazism.
While romantic, it's quite ambitious.
We're taking a slightly different approach.
But you've gotten our attention.
Expect us.#burnbayc#bayc#nftcommunity#nft#nfts https://t.co/aHHFkNlV58
— nxg4n.eth (@nxg4n) August 7, 2022
Nxg4n is an ENS collector according to the OpenSea account linked to the wallet that resolves their address nxg4n.eth. No substantial information appears to link the account to Anonymous, which is to be expected but makes confirmation of their involvement with Anonymous difficult. However, one Anonymous account on Twitter has aligned itself with nxg4n, reporting that it has “tapped the legendary @nxg4n to mastermind a special project of ours.”
Greeting Citizens of The World
If you haven’t heard as of yet, Anonymous has tapped the legendary @nxg4n to mastermind a special project of ours.
With that said, we ask you to follow @nxg4n as they will be posting exclusive content, relative to upcoming work.
Expect us.
— Anonymous (@anonewsco) August 4, 2022
Nxg4n continues to tweet about conspiracy theories related to Yuga Labs, as shown below. However, at present, no new information has been released to suggest proof of the alleged racist ties to Nazi symbolism.
And perhaps a copy of the non-disclosure agreement that MUST have come attached to any million dollar bonus offered, to say, Seneca?#BURNBAYC #BAYC #nftcommunity https://t.co/YYyS39mg1q
— nxg4n.eth (@nxg4n) August 7, 2022
The “real” Anonymous?
Anonymous is a decentralized collective of hackers across the world with no publicly known central leadership. It is, therefore, always difficult to ascertain the legitimacy of claims from groups claiming to be “The” Anonymous. However, the page in question has been verified on Facebook and has over one million followers. The page has a pinned post promoting AnonToken, which is currently down 87% from its March 2022 all-time high, trading at $0.03. According to BSCscan, there are roughly 3,000 holders of the token with a market cap of $3.4 million.
There have been reports the project is not associated with the “real” Anonymous and is a scam token. Searches for the token on Twitter bring up only small crypto accounts attempting the pump the token.
This is not a real Anonymous account. This looks like an account takeover that is trying to piggy back off current events to promote their own shitty cash grab token. Wtf is Anontoken? https://t.co/GHuiSbz0Lf pic.twitter.com/tN7aUkacEh
— Mr.3️⃣0️⃣5️⃣.eth (@B_Fr4nk) August 7, 2022
Authors note: No entity has ever been able to confirm the identity of an Anonymous account legitimately. It feels responsible to point out the possibility that the account in question could be a fake. This could be said to be true of all Anonymous accounts, but given the size of the following and its history of posting Anonymous content, I feel it is worth reporting. Time will tell if Anonymous is truly targeting BAYC.
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Liam 'Akiba' Wright
Also known as "Akiba," Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.
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