SINGAPORE: On Monday, November 6, media outlets like Bloomberg and Fortune reported that more than a few attendees of the Bored Ape Yacht Club event in Hong Kong had eye problems.
Attendees of a party on November 4 claimed that the ultraviolet ( UV ) light used in stage lighting was to blame for their” eye burn” and vision issues, which they posted on social media.
The ApeFest festival, which ran from November 3 to November 5, was attended by about 2,500 non-fungible token( NFT ) enthusiasts from 60 different nations, according to the South China Morning Post.
Cryptocurrency scientist Adrian Zdunczyk claimed to have” severe gaze fire” when he woke up and” photokeratitis over both eyes, injury related” after visiting an eye doctor in a blog on X, previously known as Twitter.
He compared the situation to blow deafness, which is brought on by exposure to UV rays, and urged additional visitors to seek medical attention.
To treat the condition, Mr. Zdunczyk claimed that steroids eye drops and gaze lubricants had been prescribed.
Another visitor, Crypto June, wrote on X,” Wake up in the middle of the night after Apefest with so much anguish in my sight that I had to go to the doctor… Doctor told me it was expected to stage lights’ UV.”
Nearly 1000 people were rendered deaf by” no safe” lamps, according to Crypto June.
Chloe Ge, an attendee, told the Financial Times that the day after the party, she felt as though her eye were” being burnt with spicy chile.”
The Bored Ape Yacht Club stated in a post on X on Monday that it had been” proactively reaching out to individuals… to try and find the potential root causes” because it was” aware of the eye-related issues that affected some of AeFest attendees.”
It stated that” Based on our estimates, we believe that much less than 1 % of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.”
” We encourage anyone who feels their symptoms to seek medical attention just in case ,” despite the fact that almost everyone has reported that they have improved.
Bored Ape artworks, which Yuga Labs produced, were among the most prominent symbols of the NFT craze of 2021 – 2022 and peaked in April of last year at a minimum price of US$ 429,000.
However, prices had dropped 88 % from this peak, according to Decrypt, a cryptocurrency news website, in early July.
About 95 % of all NFT series were worthless, according to a report released in September by dappGambl, which calls itself” a group of crypto and crypto gambling authorities.”