Visitors to bored Ape NFT event in Hong Kong report eye problems

Some visitors to a celebration in Hong Kong of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of nonfungible-tokens complained about eye problems and blamed the lighting used at the event.

Signage for NFT at the Hong Kong FinTech Week in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. The conference runs through Nov. 5. (Bloomberg)

Some visitors to a celebration in Hong Kong of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of nonfungible-tokens complained about eye problems and blamed the lighting used at the event.

Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs Inc. held the so-called ApeFest during Nov. 3-5, including a brightly lit party. A number of people said on X, the platform once known as Twitter, that they experienced eye burn after going to ApeFest.

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“We are aware of this situation and are taking it seriously,” a spokesperson for Yuga Labs said. “We are actively reaching out to those affected to better understand the root cause.”

Adrian Zdunczyk, who is known in the crypto community for providing chart-based technical analysis of digital assets, said on X that he had attended ApeFest and was diagnosed with photokeratitis after visiting hospital. Photokeratitis occurs after unprotected exposure to ultraviolet light.

“My vision was tested as close to perfect with no serious cornea damage, luckily,” he wrote.

Yuga Labs is behind both the Bored Ape and CryptoPunks NFT collections. The NFT market as a whole has crashed from its pandemic-era peak. Creators and traders are also tussling over the appropriate level of royalty payments.