PlayDapp Suffers Major Hack: $31 Million in Tokens Minted, Company Offers $1 Million Reward for Stolen Assets
Summary:
South Korean Web3 game developer PlayDapp suffered a hack beginning February 9, during which $31 million in native tokens were minted. The company froze its smart contract to capture a migration screenshot and promised a $1 million reward for the return of the stolen assets, threatening to involve US law enforcement. An extra 1.59 billion tokens were minted on February 12, and the total value of the PLA token fell. The company is now working with multiple organizations to mitigate the damage of the hack.
On February 13 just before 11:00 am UTC, PlayDapp, the South Korean Web3 game developer and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, declared a temporary pause in its smart contract in order to capture a screenshot for migration, amidst an ongoing hacking incident that began on February 9. Blockchain security company PeckShield discovered a plausible private key leak at PlayDapp, following the minting of 200 million of its native PlayDapp (PLA) tokens, value calculated as $31 million during that time. Peckshield's industry peer, Cyvers Alerts elucidated further that an apparent security breach has occurred and an attacker’s address may have been added to the minting process.
On the following day, PlayDapp sent a public message to the hacker, promising a reward for the returned stolen contracts and assets, and also warning that the authorities, including the US FBI, would be notified if there was no reply. Owing to the ongoing incident, PlayDapp's customer support was unavailable from February 9 until February 12. Elliptic, in its blog, disclosed that the reward would be $1 million if the stolen contracts and assets were restored by February 13. Post that, the same bounty would be offered for the hacker. Wallets believed to be associated with the hack are under identification, according to Elliptic.
Post the stipulated deadline, PlayDapp on Medium stated its collaboration with blockchain analytics, security enterprises, centralized exchanges, and law enforcement to mitigate the repercussions of the hacking incident. In addition, as per Elliptic, an additional 1.59 billion PLA tokens, valued at $253.9 million at that moment, were minted on February 12. However, potential difficulties foreseeably await hackers intending to sell the illegally minted tokens since the total PLA supply prior to the hack was 577 million.
On February 9, the worth of PLA slumped from $0.1823 with a $2.83 million 24-hour trading volume to $0.1482 with the volume reaching $60.17 million. The current value slightly increased from an earlier low of $0.1420. PlayDapp, in 2021, launched the play-to-earn game "Along with the Gods" on the Polygon blockchain. The gaming service, however, was discontinued in May 2023, deemed "unsustainable". NFTs from the game are yet purchasable on the PlayDapp website.
Published At
2/14/2024 12:21:08 AM
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