Arbitrum-based NFT market Treasure has been hacked. The developers froze trading after hundreds of NFTs were stolen from the Smol Brains and Legions collections. After the news of the hack was heard, the altcoin used in the market crashed. For details, continue reading Kriptokoin.com.
Treasure market hacked, altcoin price plunges
Ethereum Layer-2 solution Treasure, the largest NFT market on Arbitrum, was hacked early Thursday morning and hundreds of NFTs were stolen. Hackers found a way to get NFTs listed on the Treasure market without paying. Altcoin developers quickly reacted and froze trading in the market to prevent further losses.
Treasure is the hub of NFTs in the TreasureDAO NFT ecosystem. Instead of using Ethereum or stablecoins to buy and sell NFTs like in OpenSea, Treasure allows users to transact using only the ecosystem’s native currency, MAGIC tokens. According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, an attacker found a way to manipulate the price of NFTs listed on Treasure, allowing them to purchase NFTs in exchange for 0 MAGIC tokens.
PeckShield estimates that more than 100 NFTs were stolen from the market before the developers freeze trading. Looks like an address stole 17 pixel art monkeys from the Smol Brains collection. Had these NFTs been purchased at their original list price, it would have cost a buyer $1.4 million worth of MAGIC tokens. Another popular collection called Smol Brains and Legions seem to have taken the brunt of the attack as they are currently the most valuable and actively traded NFTs on Treasure. The cheapest Smol Brains are normally trading at around $9,500 today.
As news of the hacks circulated the internet, the price of MAGIC (MAGIC) token dropped sharply and bottomed out with a 33% loss before posting a slight rebound. MAGIC is currently trading at $3.04, down 15.84% from pre-use levels.
After Trade freeze, hackers recovered some NFTs
In response to this attack, TreasureDAO’ To reassure the Treasure community, dan GoudaGaarp released the following statement on Discord: “Our deepest and most sincere condolences to those affected by the attack today.” Also, GoudaGaarp announced that TreasureDAO has frozen the Treasure market pending a full code review. TreasureDAO will also play an active role in restoring NFTs to their beneficiaries and plans to propose various remediation options to compensate users.
But as the situation progressed, it became clear that most of the hackers changed their minds. Under the banner of Br0keboy96, a Twitter user pointed out that transaction data from Arbiscan shows that dozens of NFTs stolen from Treasure have been returned to their rightful owners. Presumably, the hackers realized that the stolen NFT could not be refunded in cash, as the TreasureDAO trade was frozen and they were probably planning to blacklist all stolen NFTs.
As the popularity of NFTs exploded, attacks and hacks targeting NFT markets increased. Last month, a hacker using phishing emails managed to steal nearly millions of dollars worth of NFTs from OpenSea users. While DeFi protocols and bridges between blockchains are often popular targets for hackers, according to experts, more attacks against applications like Treasure are likely as NFTs grow in value and popularity.