White hats rescue $500K in NFTs after Flooring exploit

Yuga Labs-affiliated developers rescued 68 non-fungible tokens from Flooring Protocol after an exploit put NFTs from collections including Bored Apes and CryptoPunks at risk.

Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge said Monday that the recovered NFTs are now in the company’s custody and will be returned once a solution is finalized.

Yuga’s pseudonymous vice president of blockchain, 0xQuit, said the recovery covered more than $500,000 worth of NFTs.

Source: Michael Figge

Despite the $NFT market’s cooldown, some collections still retain high floor prices. CryptoPunks had a floor price of around 32.7 $ETH ($54,612), while Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs sat around 9.16 $ETH, according to CoinGecko.

Flooring Protocol was already winding down

The incident affected a protocol that had already been winding down parts of its consumer-facing $NFT business.

Floor Protocol said in September 2025 that its Web3 consumer services were entering sunset mode and advised FPv2 token holders to redeem their NFTs and exit fractional positions before Oct. 15, 2025.

Former CEO FreeLunchCapital said the protocol faced liquidity issues and organizational changes that left parts of the $NFT division unmanaged.

FreeLunchCapital said they had continued providing liquidity and kept some of their own $NFT assets on the platform to help users exit positions, adding that those assets became a primary target during the exploit.

FreeLunchCapital said they are in talks with the parent group behind the management team to regain control of the protocol.

$NFT market remains far below peak levels

Despite falling sharply from its peak, the $NFT market still represents billions of dollars in value. CoinGecko data showed overall $NFT market capitalization climbed to around $2 billion in late April and early May before falling back toward $1.4 billion by Monday.

90-day $NFT market capitalization chart. Source: CoinGecko

$NFT Price Floor data showed CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club remained the two largest $NFT collections by market capitalization.

CryptoPunks had a market capitalization of about 339,400 $ETH (about $560 million), while BAYC stood at around 90,590 $ETH ($150 million).