Over the last two weeks, we have re-assessed the full state of the deployed contract. It is now confirmed that the main accounting model was damaged in the attack and cannot be repaired. The only way to restore correct ownership is to re-deploy the main contract. We remain cautious on the security side. BitmapPunks has one of the most complex designs in the NFT space, and it is uncertain whether a simple fix would avoid introducing new vulnerabilities. With that in mind, we are evaluating two new paths forward. The first is to deploy a pure ERC-721 contract and re-mint with only the images baked on-chain. The trade-off is that BitmapPunks would permanently lose part of its identity, relying heavily on traditional marketplaces, and the project would only make sense on EVM chains with marketplace support. The second is to airdrop as a pure ERC-20 token, fully decoupling the art from the token. Effectively, the new token would become more of a meme coin representing the project's culture. In parallel, we have spoken with several entities interested in taking over and running the token and community side of the project. If we find a team that genuinely shares our vision for BitmapPunks, we will hand over our source code and everything we have built, so they can carry the torch and continue the journey from here. Regardless of how the token side is resolved, we will continue to build on this project. It remains the largest PFP collection in history, and its glory will not be undone by a single attack. In the age of AI, we are all in the process of redefining ourselves — and now a new chapter is unfolding. While the token side remains pending, we will remove certain functions from our websites and Telegram channels. Our focus will shift to spreading BitmapPunks as a pure pixel art PFP project across the internet, and we will release more tools to help builders easily access the project's content. Last but not least, we see many NFTs still being purchased every day on our native marketplace. We're grateful for your love of the art, but we must emphasize one important point that we have already discussed with the CTO candidates: if we ever conduct an airdrop or gated re-mint, ownership will be based on the snapshot taken before the attack. This means any purchases made after the hack will not be counted. Thank you for your continued attention. We will share more details as they become available.

One thing that has always amazed me is how much talent BitmapPunks managed to gather. Despite its small market cap, it drew the attention of so many skilled cyber nomads. I remember how low our expectations were at launch. Our best estimate was that it would take two weeks to fully mint. Instead, the TGE completed in under 14 hours. When we dug into it, we found that many were minted by bots. Bots in a mint were nothing new in crypto, but what surprised me was how fast they were built. And it didn't stop there. Soon after the native market launched, someone deployed rare-NFT sniping bots so fast they could snipe the rare ones in the very same block they became available. People were putting MEV-level skill to work here for just a few bucks. On one hand, I felt proud and honored that this project attracted some of the most talented geeks in the space. On the other, I always carried this quiet worry that no mistake we made would ever escape their eyes. This week, that nightmare came true. What cripples me isn't the financial loss — it's the loss of faith to build something new for this space. I've always had ideas I wanted to bring to life, and so far I've realized maybe 5% of them. Now I have to force myself to stop. Given the pace of AI progress, everything we build suddenly feels so fragile. We're going to pause here until we have a plan we're truly confident can survive. Looking back, I feel grateful that one of the best decisions I made was turning down various collabs that could have driven short-term hype. Otherwise, the damage today would have hurt far more people. I know many of my close friends bought heavily from the secondary market. I'm sorry this project didn't reward you financially. And to the many of you still using your BitmapPunks as your PFP across your profiles — I want to express my deepest appreciation. It means more than you know. Many have suggested an airdrop based on a snapshot taken before the hack. Technically, this is possible. But no one can guarantee that a new contract would be perfect and unhackable. As much as we emotionally want to do it — to shake off this feeling of defeat — we won't rush into it. Right now, the team's focus is working with security teams to track down the attackers. If we manage to recover any funds, or if the hacker is willing to negotiate, every recovered dollar will go toward giving BitmapPunks the best possible chance to get back on its feet. Fingers crossed, and back to work.

1/ An update on BitmapPunks ($BMP): As mentioned in the previous thread, BitmapPunks was the other project hit in this attack. The attacker drained the liquidity pools by minting an excessive amount of $BMP, and the damage went well beyond the market cap.