According to Wu Blockchain reports, layer-1 blockchain network Elrond was hacked with more than $1.65 million worth of tokens stolen and released into circulation, causing a massive 95 percent drop in Elrond’s altcoin project EGLD. It was reported that the attack was aimed at a specific exchange. Here are the details…
Elrond lost $1.6 million EGLD
First of all, Elrond (EGLD) CEO Beniamin Mincu tweeted about “suspicious activity in Maiar DEX” on June 6. Later, Andu Tabacu, founder of NFT project Elrond Lucky Birds, shared the details of his findings by publishing screenshots of altcoin EGLD sold to USDC based on data from Blockchain explorer. Tabacu said this is likely an exploit related to “lottery-type smart contracts.”
Linked to abuse, f854j, fu950 and There are at least three addresses ending in 4ww0rt. These addresses were created at the same time and received funding from the Binance exchange. After receiving some money from the exchange, they implemented a smart contract with a “distribute” functionality. In the next hour, a new operation with the withdrawal function took place, after which the hackers received $1.65 million worth of tokens. It is unclear how the hackers were able to withdraw such a large amount of money with one operation. Wu Blockchain, tweeting on the subject, used the following statements:
There has been a security breach on Elrond, an L1 network. Hackers stole approximately $1.65 million worth of EGLD and sold them through the Maiar DEX. The sale resulted in a 92 percent drop in EGLD. Currently, authorities have suspended DEX and related APIs.
What’s the latest?
After stealing funds, hackers deliberately try to hide their tracks by creating new addresses and moving funds from one network to another. Mincu released the first update the other day, saying that the issue has been identified and that the developers are “working on an urgent fix.” He also thanked the Elrond community for their support during this time. Mincu released another update a few hours later, confirming that a fix has been made. Maiar exchange went offline for a while, with an error page stating that user funds are safe and “rewards will continue”.
Altcoin price collapsed
Meanwhile, as we reported on Cryptokoin.com, the ecosystem’s token EGLD fell sharply after the announcement and dropped to $66.09 before the bulls stepped in to push the price higher. The hourly price action since then has been showing an uptrend, but EGLD is still trading below the price before Mincu’s tweet. The drop in the EGLD token was observed by 95 percent, especially in the EGLD / USD Coin (USDC) pair on KuCoin. Tether (USDT) pair, on the other hand, does not seem to have such a big anomaly.
The coin is changing hands at around $67 at the time of writing. It seems that there has been a decrease of 8.3% in the last 24 hours, 20.6 percent in the last 7 days, and 42 percent in the last 30 days.