A non-fungible token or NFT has become a staple collection among digital collectors. However, since the projects are launched online, they are often subject to being copied by other artists.

According to the latest report, a Chinese NFT project, "Bored Wukong", is currently accused of copying the original concept behind "Bored Ape Yacht Club." In response to this claim, the creator denied the allegations thrown against him.

Bored Wukong NFT Project Allegedly Plagiarized BAYC

(Photo : OpenSea)
Bored Ape @Monkey King (Wukong)

From a news story written by the South China Morning Post, the NFT project dubbed Bored Wukong was inspired by a popular "Journey to the West" character, Sun Wukong or Monkey King. The digital artist illustrated a lot of avatars that depict the iconic creature in the Chinese novel.

Just like other NFT projects, the creator used Wukong as the main subject and drew it in different styles and patterns. Some of the variations include Wukong with pipe and Cyberpunk-inspired Wukong.

However, the controversial project has attracted a lot of attention, especially those who got used to seeing the Bored Ape Yacht Club everywhere. 

The Chinese NFT collection was accused of allegedly copying BAYC projects. However, the artists denied the accusations and said that all of his artworks originally came from him.

In connection to NFT trading, the state media have been "repeatedly" reminding the public about its risks. 

Speaking of BAYC, Tech Times reported earlier this year that some of them were stolen by a hacker from an art gallery owner. The NFT collection that was swiped away reportedly cost $2.2 million in total.

Related Article: Adidas Ventures NFT Partnership With Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punks Comic, and Gmoney

Bored Wukong NFTs Are Becoming Popular

In a similar report by SCMP, NFTCN, a known NFT marketplace in China showed that the first Bored Wukong NFT sat at around $15 or 99 yuan. It was sold in November 2021 and resold a month later.

As of press time, the recent listing noted that it is currently valued at 8,888,888 yuan or almost $1.4 million.

Last week, Bored Wukong became an instant talk of the town when people saw it on WeChat, a Chinese messaging platform. Many witnessed its close resemblance with the known Bored Ape Yacht Club project which features bored apes in different styles.

At that time, the WeChat authors immediately accused the creator of Bored Wukong of using similar elements in its NFT designs. As such, the facial features used in all Bored Apes have been applied as well.

Bored Wukong Creator Responded to Allegations

In a project website by Bored Wukong artist Wang Wendong, he said that the facial features of the Wukong NFTs are different from Bored Apes. He cited the face shapes in particular and added that he used to manually illustrate all of them wearing different accessories and add-ons.

"If we talk about film stars, then people will no longer think of plagiarism. Instead, they will just say the stars look similar, right?" Wang wrote on his site.

As a matter of fact, Wang has already published 390 variations of Bored Wukongs to date. NFTCN indicated that this project made Wang the second most popular NFT creator when it comes to transaction volume.

With regards to plagiarism, Reuters reported that a marketplace has suspended almost all of the ongoing NFT games following reports that some of them were plagiarized and bogus.

Meanwhile, we recommend you to be more careful in investing in NFT since NFT rug pulls can happen like in the case of the Frosties incident.

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This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry