Yuga Labs Rescues $570K Worth of NFTs From Exploit

On June 8, 2026, Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, executed a whitehat hacking operation to recover around $570,000 worth of NFTs from an exploit that affected the defunct liquidity platform Floor Protocol. The rescue included 29 Bored Apes and two CryptoPunks, among others. This operation came after the team discovered that an exploit on the Floor Protocol could potentially impact other significant collections, including their own.

Yuga Labs indicated that they sought to prevent further damage after recognizing a related exploit path that put more valuable NFTs at risk. The team acted swiftly to remove these exposed NFTs from vulnerable pools before they could be exploited by malicious actors. In a statement, Yuga Labs Vice President of Blockchain, known as 0xQuit, emphasized the urgency of protecting the assets: "The goal was to remove exposed NFTs from vulnerable Flooring pools before another malicious actor could exploit the same paths and extract them first," they explained.

Floor Protocol, which ceased operations last year, allowed users to deposit their NFTs into liquidity pools to earn fungible tokens (called μTokens) that could be traded or redeemed. The exploit involved attackers manipulating a small amount of wrapped Ethereum (wETH) to create an inflated μToken balance, thereby draining the NFT pools.

Currently, Yuga Labs maintains custody of the rescued NFTs as they collaborate with Floor Protocol developers to facilitate their return to the rightful owners. Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge noted that the initiative helped protect the market from further destabilization, stating, "Thanks to this move, we were able to save dozens of assets from impacting the market and Flooring protocol tokens from being compromised." This incident highlights the ongoing vulnerabilities in the NFT space and the proactive steps that industry leaders are willing to take to safeguard their assets.