{"investigation":{"slug":"kevin-rose","entity_name":"Kevin Rose","trust_score":57,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":-5,"confidence":0.82,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Kevin Rose is an American internet entrepreneur, venture investor, and co-founder of the PROOF Collective and Moonbirds NFT project. On January 25, 2023, Rose was the victim of a sophisticated spear-phishing attack in which he was socially engineered into signing a malicious transaction, resulting in the theft of approximately 40 NFTs valued at an estimated $1.09–$1.5 million USD from his personal krovault.eth wallet. Rose is categorized as a victim of crypto fraud, not a perpetrator; the incident is notable for illustrating signature-based approval risks in NFT marketplaces.","sections":[{"content":"Robert Kevin Rose (born February 21, 1977) is an American internet entrepreneur best known for co-founding the social news aggregator Digg in 2004, which at its peak reached over 38 million monthly users. He also co-founded Revision3, Pownce, and Milk, and served as co-host of TechTV's The Screen Savers. Rose later served as a General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) from approximately 2012 to 2015, where his portfolio included investments in Ripple, Blue Bottle Coffee, Medium, and Nextdoor. He is also listed as an angel investor in Twitter, Facebook, and Square, and is a partner at True Ventures. Time Magazine named Rose one of the 'Top 25 Most Influential People on the Web' and Bloomberg listed him as a 'Top 25 Angel Investor.' In December 2021, Rose co-founded PROOF Holdings Inc. alongside Justin Mezzell, which became the company behind the PROOF Collective and the Moonbirds NFT collection.","heading":"Background and Career","sources":[{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rose","name":"Kevin Rose - Wikipedia","type":"other","credibility":2},{"url":"https://nftmetria.com/nft-influencers/kevin-rose/","name":"Who is Kevin Rose? NFT influencer, founder of PROOF Collective and Moonbirds","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://nftnow.com/podcasts/how-kevin-roses-proof-became-a-250k-collector-club/","name":"How Kevin Rose's PROOF Collective Became a $250K+ Collector Club","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"PROOF Collective launched as an exclusive NFT membership community in late 2021, with Rose and Mezzell positioning it as a high-end collector's club. Its flagship NFT project, Moonbirds — a collection of 10,000 pixelated owl characters on Ethereum — launched in April 2022 and generated approximately $280 million in primary and secondary sales within its first two days. In aggregate, PROOF's NFT collections have recorded over 170,000 ETH (~$500 million USD) in all-time trading volume, placing them in the top ten NFT collections by volume. In August 2022, Rose announced that Moonbirds and its Oddities sub-collection would transition to a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, effectively placing them in the public domain. The decision drew significant backlash from holders who claimed they had lost individual commercial rights; Moonbirds' floor price fell from approximately 18 ETH to 11.7 ETH in the weeks following the announcement. In February 2024, Yuga Labs (creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club) acquired PROOF in an all-stock deal; Rose transitioned to an advisory role at Yuga. Yuga subsequently revoked the CC0 license in May 2024 and later sold the Moonbirds IP to a company called Orange Cap Games.","heading":"PROOF Collective and Moonbirds","sources":[{"url":"https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof","name":"Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Moonbirds NFT Startup Proof - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/108104/kevin-roses-proof-from-nft-drop-to-growing-web3-biz-with-a-cc0-twist","name":"Kevin Rose's Proof: From NFT Drop to Growing Web3 Biz, With a CC0 Twist - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://nftevening.com/moonbirds-rescind-nft-commercial-rights-for-cc0-but-is-it-legal/","name":"Moonbirds Rescind NFT Commercial Rights For CC0. But is it legal? - NFT Evening","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://nftnow.com/news/yuga-labs-acquires-proof/","name":"Yuga Labs Acquires PROOF & Moonbirds - NFT Now","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"On January 25, 2023, Kevin Rose publicly announced via Twitter that his personal krovault.eth wallet had been compromised in a phishing attack, urging followers not to purchase Chromie Squiggle NFTs until the stolen tokens could be flagged on marketplaces. According to PROOF's VP of Engineering Arran Schlosberg, the incident was 'a classic piece of social engineering, tricking [Rose] into a false sense of security,' in which Rose was 'phished into signing a malicious signature that allowed the hacker to transfer a large number of high-value tokens.' The attack began with a malicious airdrop designed to impersonate the legitimate 'The Memes by 6529' collection — a niche, artsy NFT project requiring insider knowledge — which prompted Rose to visit a fraudulent website. Rose had his hardware wallet active at the time, as he was in the process of listing NFTs for sale on OpenSea. While distracted on a phone call, he navigated to the malicious site and was presented with what appeared to be a standard sign-in prompt. Rose stated: 'The second I signed in I knew something was wrong, because I got a followup signature right away that said authorize all your Meebits.' By that point the malicious transaction had already been authorized. Rose later reflected: 'This is also a tale of multitasking — that you should never do when you're messing around with NFTs.'","heading":"The January 2023 Phishing Attack","sources":[{"url":"https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/kevin-rose-nfts-cyber-crime-spear-phishing","name":"How Kevin Rose got duped into giving away valuable NFTs - Axios","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/25/kevin-rose-says-nft-wallet-with-dozens-of-high-value-collectibles-hacked","name":"Kevin Rose's NFT Wallet With 40 High-Value Collectibles Hacked - CoinDesk","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/205606/moonbirds-creator-kevin-rose-hacked-at-least-1-million-in-nfts-stolen","name":"Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose hacked, at least $1m in NFTs lost - The Block","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/119981/proof-founder-kevin-rose-nfts-stolen-wallet","name":"Proof Founder Kevin Rose Just Had Over $1M Worth of NFTs Stolen From His Wallet - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"The technical vector of the attack exploited the OpenSea Seaport marketplace contract's signature-based approval system. Because Rose had previously approved the Seaport contract to handle transfers of his NFTs for the purpose of legitimate sales, the attacker was able to craft a malicious off-chain signature — mimicking a standard OpenSea marketplace order — that authorized a bulk transfer of all approved assets at a price of 0 WETH to an attacker-controlled address. The exploit did not require a smart contract vulnerability; it relied entirely on Rose signing a human-unreadable transaction payload presented by the phishing site. Security researchers noted there is no straightforward way for a user to visually distinguish a malicious signature request from a legitimate one, as the signature context can be manipulated by the attacker to appear routine. The attacker subsequently moved the stolen assets to FixedFloat, a non-custodial exchange operating on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, converted the proceeds to Bitcoin, and then passed the BTC through a coin mixer to obscure the transaction trail. The Revoke.cash tool was attempted after the fact but the assets had already been transferred before it could be used. On the same day, the same attacker allegedly stole 75 ETH from an additional victim.","heading":"Technical Mechanics: Seaport Signature Exploit","sources":[{"url":"https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/kevin-rose-nfts-cyber-crime-spear-phishing","name":"How Kevin Rose got duped into giving away valuable NFTs - Axios","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://dailycoin.com/kevin-rose-in-phishing-scam-that-claims-1-1m-in-nfts/","name":"Kevin Rose in Phishing Scam that Claims $1.1M in NFTs - DailyCoin","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:65f80453e094b:0-moonbirds-creator-kevin-rose-loses-1-1m-in-nfts-after-1-wrong-move/","name":"Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose loses $1.1M+ in NFTs after 1 wrong move - CoinTelegraph via TradingView","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://coinpaper.com/875/nf-ts-worth-over-1m-stolen-from-moonbird-co-founder-kevin-rose","name":"NFTs worth over $1m stolen from Moonbird co-founder Kevin Rose - CoinPaper","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"On-chain records and reporting by Arkham Intelligence confirmed that approximately 40 NFTs were transferred from Rose's krovault.eth wallet. The stolen assets included: 25 Chromie Squiggle NFTs from the Art Blocks project (floor price approximately $20,700 each at the time of the theft); one Autoglyph from Larva Labs (valued at approximately $491,000, or approximately 345 ETH); one QQL Mint Pass; one 'Admit One' pass from the gmoney collection; one Cool Cat NFT; one 'The Currency' artwork by British artist Damien Hirst; one Quantum Key; and several OnChainMonkeys. The total value of the stolen NFTs was estimated at approximately $1.09 million by Arkham Intelligence, though other estimates placed the total higher, with Blockworks reporting the figure at approximately $1.4 million. Individual Chromie Squiggles carry rarity-dependent valuations significantly above floor price, and the Autoglyph alone represented a disproportionate share of the total loss. PROOF's organizational holdings, stored in multi-signature wallets, were not affected by the incident.","heading":"Stolen Assets","sources":[{"url":"https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/25/kevin-rose-says-nft-wallet-with-dozens-of-high-value-collectibles-hacked","name":"Kevin Rose's NFT Wallet With 40 High-Value Collectibles Hacked - CoinDesk","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/119981/proof-founder-kevin-rose-nfts-stolen-wallet","name":"Proof Founder Kevin Rose Just Had Over $1M Worth of NFTs Stolen From His Wallet - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://coincu.com/162548-moonbirds-kevin-rose-lost-1-million/","name":"Moonbirds Creator Kevin Rose Lost $1 Million In NFTs - Coincu","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://nftevening.com/kevin-rose-gets-scammed-for-millions-worth-of-nfts/","name":"Kevin Rose Gets Scammed For Millions Worth Of NFTs - NFT Evening","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"The Rose incident attracted widespread industry attention because it demonstrated that even technically sophisticated, security-conscious individuals — Rose stored his high-value NFTs on a hardware wallet kept offline — remain vulnerable to signature-based phishing attacks. Security researchers highlighted that wallet-drainer tools of the type used in this attack are openly distributed on platforms such as GitHub and can be adapted by actors with moderate technical ability. The attack reinforced that the fundamental risk in NFT ownership is not typically at the smart contract or blockchain network level but at the human-interface layer: non-human-readable transaction payloads shown by most wallet software give users little basis to evaluate what they are signing. Over $3 billion was reportedly stolen across the broader Web3 space in 2022, and high-profile incidents like this one accelerated industry discussion around transaction simulation, clear-signing standards, and approval management tools such as Revoke.cash. The incident prompted calls for hardware wallet manufacturers and NFT marketplaces to implement more legible, human-readable transaction previews before user confirmation.","heading":"Broader Security Implications","sources":[{"url":"https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/kevin-rose-nfts-cyber-crime-spear-phishing","name":"How Kevin Rose got duped into giving away valuable NFTs - Axios","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://dailycoin.com/kevin-rose-in-phishing-scam-that-claims-1-1m-in-nfts/","name":"Kevin Rose in Phishing Scam that Claims $1.1M in NFTs - DailyCoin","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://protos.com/high-profile-investor-accidentally-gives-away-nft-collection/","name":"High-profile investor accidentally gives away NFT collection - Protos","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://web3.gate.com/crypto-wiki/article/a-cautionary-tale-of-moonbirds-creator-s-million-dollar-nft-loss-20260112","name":"A Cautionary Tale of Moonbirds Creator's Million-Dollar NFT Loss - Gate Web3","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Separate from the phishing incident, PROOF and Rose faced significant community criticism related to the August 2022 decision to relicense Moonbirds under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). The announcement effectively stripped individual Moonbirds holders of exclusive commercial rights, placing artwork in the public domain. Community members reported lost commercial opportunities — one pseudonymous collector cited a missed six-figure brand deal — and the Moonbirds floor price fell from approximately 18.35 ETH to 11.7 ETH within two weeks of the announcement. Over the subsequent twelve months, the floor price declined from an all-time high of roughly 37 ETH to below 2 ETH. Retrospective accounts from community members contacted by crypto media described the CC0 transition as the project's most damaging decision. When Yuga Labs acquired PROOF in February 2024, one of its first actions was to revoke the CC0 license in May 2024, which was broadly received as correcting PROOF's earlier move. No regulatory actions or litigation against Rose personally have been identified in connection with the CC0 decision or the project's subsequent performance.","heading":"Moonbirds CC0 Controversy and Project Decline","sources":[{"url":"https://decrypt.co/108104/kevin-roses-proof-from-nft-drop-to-growing-web3-biz-with-a-cc0-twist","name":"Kevin Rose's Proof: From NFT Drop to Growing Web3 Biz, With a CC0 Twist - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.technollama.co.uk/moonbirds-and-cc0-problems-with-nft-licensing-and-the-public-domain","name":"Moonbirds and CC0: Problems with NFT licensing and the public domain - TechnoLlama","type":"other","credibility":2},{"url":"https://nftevening.com/moonbirds-rescind-nft-commercial-rights-for-cc0-but-is-it-legal/","name":"Moonbirds Rescind NFT Commercial Rights For CC0 - NFT Evening","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof","name":"Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Moonbirds NFT Startup Proof - Decrypt","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2004","event":"Kevin Rose co-founds Digg, a social news aggregator that reaches over 38 million monthly users at its peak.","source":"Wikipedia","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rose","date_original":"2004-01-01"},{"date":"2012","event":"Rose joins Google Ventures as a General Partner, investing in companies including Ripple, Blue Bottle Coffee, Medium, and Nextdoor.","source":"NFT Metria / Kevin Rose profile","source_url":"https://nftmetria.com/nft-influencers/kevin-rose/","date_original":"2012-01-01"},{"date":"2021-12","event":"Rose and Justin Mezzell co-found PROOF Holdings Inc., launching the PROOF Collective as an exclusive NFT membership community.","source":"NFT Now","source_url":"https://nftnow.com/podcasts/how-kevin-roses-proof-became-a-250k-collector-club/","date_original":"2021-12-01"},{"date":"2022-04","event":"Moonbirds NFT collection launches on Ethereum; generates approximately $280 million in primary and secondary sales within its first two days.","source":"Kevin Rose PROOF Collective profile - NFT Metria","source_url":"https://nftmetria.com/nft-influencers/kevin-rose/","date_original":"2022-04-01"},{"date":"2022-08-04","event":"Rose announces that Moonbirds and Oddities NFT collections will transition to CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) licensing. Community backlash follows; floor price falls from ~18.35 ETH to ~11.7 ETH within two weeks.","source":"Decrypt - CC0 Twist article","source_url":"https://decrypt.co/108104/kevin-roses-proof-from-nft-drop-to-growing-web3-biz-with-a-cc0-twist"},{"date":"2023-01-25","event":"Rose publicly announces on Twitter that his krovault.eth personal wallet was compromised in a phishing attack. Approximately 40 NFTs, including 25 Chromie Squiggles and one Autoglyph, are stolen, with total estimated value of $1.09 million to $1.4 million USD.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/25/kevin-rose-says-nft-wallet-with-dozens-of-high-value-collectibles-hacked"},{"date":"2023-01-27","event":"Axios publishes in-depth account of the attack mechanics based on Rose's public statements, describing the malicious airdrop, fake sign-in page, and Seaport signature exploit used by the attacker.","source":"Axios","source_url":"https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/kevin-rose-nfts-cyber-crime-spear-phishing"},{"date":"2024-02-16","event":"Yuga Labs announces acquisition of PROOF in an all-stock deal. Rose transitions to an advisory role at Yuga Labs.","source":"Decrypt - Yuga Labs acquires Moonbirds","source_url":"https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof"},{"date":"2024-05","event":"Yuga Labs revokes the CC0 license from Moonbirds and Oddities, restoring individual commercial rights to NFT holders.","source":"NFT Evening","source_url":"https://nftevening.com/moonbirds-rescind-nft-commercial-rights-for-cc0-but-is-it-legal/","date_original":"2024-05-01"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rose","name":"Kevin Rose - Wikipedia","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260525061307/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rose","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-25T06:13:07+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/kevin-rose-nfts-cyber-crime-spear-phishing","name":"How Kevin Rose got duped into giving away valuable NFTs - Axios","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":1,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/25/kevin-rose-says-nft-wallet-with-dozens-of-high-value-collectibles-hacked","name":"Kevin Rose's NFT Wallet With 40 High-Value Collectibles Hacked - CoinDesk","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20241029231455/https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/25/kevin-rose-says-nft-wallet-with-dozens-of-high-value-collectibles-hacked/","credibility":1,"archive_timestamp":"2024-10-29T23:14:55+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/205606/moonbirds-creator-kevin-rose-hacked-at-least-1-million-in-nfts-stolen","name":"Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose hacked, at least $1m in NFTs lost - The Block","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":1,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/119981/proof-founder-kevin-rose-nfts-stolen-wallet","name":"Proof Founder Kevin Rose Just Had Over $1M Worth of NFTs Stolen From His Wallet - Decrypt","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260315105455/https://decrypt.co/119981/proof-founder-kevin-rose-nfts-stolen-wallet","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-03-15T10:54:55+00:00"},{"url":"https://dailycoin.com/kevin-rose-in-phishing-scam-that-claims-1-1m-in-nfts/","name":"Kevin Rose in Phishing Scam that Claims $1.1M in NFTs - DailyCoin","type":"news_article","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260724223348/https://dailycoin.com/kevin-rose-in-phishing-scam-that-claims-1-1m-in-nfts/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-24T22:33:48+00:00"},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/108104/kevin-roses-proof-from-nft-drop-to-growing-web3-biz-with-a-cc0-twist","name":"Kevin Rose's Proof: From NFT Drop to Growing Web3 Biz, With a CC0 Twist - Decrypt","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260517090755/https://decrypt.co/108104/kevin-roses-proof-from-nft-drop-to-growing-web3-biz-with-a-cc0-twist","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-17T09:07:55+00:00"},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof","name":"Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Moonbirds NFT Startup Proof - Decrypt","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260420094221/https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-04-20T09:42:21+00:00"},{"url":"https://nftevening.com/moonbirds-rescind-nft-commercial-rights-for-cc0-but-is-it-legal/","name":"Moonbirds Rescind NFT Commercial Rights For CC0 - NFT Evening","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260215234708/https://nftevening.com/moonbirds-rescind-nft-commercial-rights-for-cc0-but-is-it-legal/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-02-15T23:47:08+00:00"},{"url":"https://protos.com/high-profile-investor-accidentally-gives-away-nft-collection/","name":"High-profile investor accidentally gives away NFT collection - Protos","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260422214539/https://protos.com/high-profile-investor-accidentally-gives-away-nft-collection/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-04-22T21:45:39+00:00"},{"url":"https://coinpaper.com/875/nf-ts-worth-over-1m-stolen-from-moonbird-co-founder-kevin-rose","name":"NFTs worth over $1m stolen from Moonbird co-founder Kevin Rose - CoinPaper","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260510025441/https://coinpaper.com/875/nf-ts-worth-over-1m-stolen-from-moonbird-co-founder-kevin-rose","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-10T02:54:41+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.technollama.co.uk/moonbirds-and-cc0-problems-with-nft-licensing-and-the-public-domain","name":"Moonbirds and CC0: Problems with NFT licensing and the public domain - 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