Fantom Foundation Faces Major Security Breach – $6.7 Million Lost
The Fantom Foundation, the team dedicated to building the Fantom network, has reportedly fallen victim to a hack that led to a significant loss of approximately $6.7 million worth of digital assets.
On October 17, the Fantom Foundation encountered a hacking incident, as reported by on-chain investigator Spreek. The attack was confirmed based on information from a Telegram report, though it’s important to note that this information was labeled as an “alleged” hacking scenario.
The hacked wallets have been identified, and initial estimates suggest losses of approximately $6.7 million. Although, the stolen funds may include assets not directly linked to the Fantom Foundation.
Blockchain security firm Certik initially estimated that attackers siphoned off nearly $657,000 worth of crypto assets in the Fantom Foundation incident. However, the figure was later updated to approximately $7 million. According to Certik, the attacker executed transactions from the Fantom Foundation’s wallets on both the Ethereum and Fantom networks.
Stolen funds have been consolidated into EOA 0x0b1 which holds 4,501.48 ETH (~$7m) pic.twitter.com/IU9GKm1qyx
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) October 17, 2023
Certik identified at least two wallets, Wallet 20 and 18, as being involved in the attack, resulting in a net loss of approximately $470,000 in FTM, Fantom native token and around $187,000 in ETH. Certik acknowledged Spreek for providing pivotal information about the attack.
Upon further examination of blockchain data, it was revealed that Fantom Foundation Wallet 20 on the Fantom network sent over 1 million FTM tokens to an address labeled “Fake_Phishing32.”
same attacker did this account.
— Spreek (@spreekaway) October 17, 2023
notably they unwound a lot of fairly complex defi stuff on it, so probably someone quite familiar with defi ecosystem pic.twitter.com/InTq2N5Unk
Additional information indicates that Fantom Foundation wallets 1, 16, 18, and 19 were also impacted by the attack. Some non-tagged wallets were associated, which were said to be personal wallets of team members. One wallet linked to a team member was drained of over $3.4 million. The total funds in the attacker’s address amount to 4,501.58 ETH, equivalent to $7 million.
Furthermore, Wallet 1 on the Ethereum network sent over 2,000 Convex (CVX) tokens, 1,000 Dai (DAI), 4,500 USDC, and other tokens to a wallet labeled “Fake_Phishing188024.”
Fantom Foundation Faces Targeted Attack and Addresses that Majority of Funds are Secured
Later today, the Fantom Foundation confirmed that it and its employees collectively lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crypto in an attack.
— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) October 17, 2023
The Fantom Foundation added that only a tiny number of Fantom wallets were compromised, including approximately $550K in Fantom Foundation funds. It also noted that the vast majority of Fantom Foundation funds, exceeding 99% of the total, remain untouched and secure.
The foundation added that some of the affected addresses labeled “Foundation Wallets” were no longer in use by them and that some of them had been reassigned to a Fantom employee, essentially making this incident a targeted personal attack.
It further assured its users that their funds were safe and that it was taking all necessary steps to prevent future attacks. Also, the mechanism for the attack is still under investigation, but the project has acknowledged early reports indicating that the attack may have resulted from a zero-day exploit via Google Chrome.
