Bittensor Halts Network Activity After $8 Million Wallet Drains
Bittensor halted its operations on July 3 following a major security breach that led to the theft of over $8 million in cryptocurrencies.
This incident adds to the ongoing security challenges in the crypto industry, where hacks and exploits continue to hinder widespread adoption.
Bittensor’s Immediate Response to Wallet Drain
On July 3, Bittensor, one of the largest AI-focused decentralized networks with a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, halted its network activity following a series of wallet drains that resulted in the theft of at least $8 million worth of digital assets.
Bittensor, which connects machine learning models owned by individuals worldwide, initiated the network outage to contain the exploit.
By way of an update, we have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode (blocks producing but no transactions are permitted).
We’re still mid investigation and are considering all possibilities. Stay tuned.
— Ala (@shibshib89) July 3, 2024
Bittensor co-founder Ala Shaabana announced on X that they have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode, with blocks producing but no transactions permitted. The team is still investigating and considering all possibilities.
The theft was first identified by pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who announced in a July 3 Telegram message that Bittensor had been halted due to additional thefts earlier that day, potentially resulting from a private key leakage.
Reports indicated that an unknown address, “5FbW,” was exploited to obtain 32,000 Bittensor (TAO) tokens valued at approximately $8 million.
This attack follows a similar incident on June 1, where another wallet was drained of $11.2 million worth of TAO tokens, as reported by ZachXBT.
Following the attack, the price of TAO tokens dropped by 15%. It saw a slight recovery after the Bittensor team assured the community of ongoing measures to prevent further incidents.
On the project’s Discord channel, a Bittensor core team member announced:
“We are investigating, and in an abundance of caution, have recently fully halted transactions on-chain until there is more information available to us about the nature of this attack.”
Co-founder Ala Shaabana confirmed on X that the chain was in “safe mode,” with blocks being produced but no transactions processed. Blockchain trackers indicated that the last transactions and blocks were processed around 23:00 UTC on Tuesday.
Shift in Attack Strategies Amid Crypto Theft
While smart contract vulnerabilities were once the main cause of substantial crypto thefts, private key leaks have become more prevalent.
Mriganka Pattnaik, co-founder and CEO of Merkle Science, stated that hackers now increasingly target areas outside smart contracts, such as private key leaks, often due to phishing attacks or insecure storage practices, leading to significant losses.
In contrast, losses due to smart contract vulnerabilities fell by 92% in 2023, dropping to $179 million from $2.6 billion in 2022.
This year, the crypto market saw a revival following the US SEC’s approval of Bitcoin ETFS in January, which raised the sector’s valuation from $1.76 trillion in February to $2.32 trillion.
However, the industry continues to face major security challenges, as highlighted by various hacking incidents. PeckShield reported that Btcturk experienced the biggest crypto-related hack in June, losing an estimated $100.25 million.
#PeckShieldAlert June 2024 witnessed 20+ hacks in the crypto space, resulting in ~$176.2 million in losses. This marks a decrease of 54.2% from May 2024 (w/ ~$385m in hackers' profits).#Top 5 Hacks:#Btctruk: $100.25 million (CeFi)#Lykke: $22 million (CeFi)#UwULend: $19.4… pic.twitter.com/83XzWf82kw
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) July 1, 2024
Lykke also faced a major hack, resulting in a $22 million loss. Despite these incidents, April saw a notable decline in combined losses from crypto hacks and scams, with only $25.7 million lost, the lowest monthly total since 2021.
In the first quarter of 2024, $336 million was lost to Web3 hackers and fraud, a 23% decrease from the same period in 2023. Notably, seven specific cases have recovered $73.9 million of stolen Web3 capital.
The post Bittensor Halts Network Activity After $8 Million Wallet Drains appeared first on Cryptonews.
Read More
Bittensor Halts Network Activity After $8 Million Wallet Drains
Bittensor halted its operations on July 3 following a major security breach that led to the theft of over $8 million in cryptocurrencies.
This incident adds to the ongoing security challenges in the crypto industry, where hacks and exploits continue to hinder widespread adoption.
Bittensor’s Immediate Response to Wallet Drain
On July 3, Bittensor, one of the largest AI-focused decentralized networks with a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, halted its network activity following a series of wallet drains that resulted in the theft of at least $8 million worth of digital assets.
Bittensor, which connects machine learning models owned by individuals worldwide, initiated the network outage to contain the exploit.
By way of an update, we have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode (blocks producing but no transactions are permitted).
We’re still mid investigation and are considering all possibilities. Stay tuned.
— Ala (@shibshib89) July 3, 2024
Bittensor co-founder Ala Shaabana announced on X that they have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode, with blocks producing but no transactions permitted. The team is still investigating and considering all possibilities.
The theft was first identified by pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who announced in a July 3 Telegram message that Bittensor had been halted due to additional thefts earlier that day, potentially resulting from a private key leakage.
Reports indicated that an unknown address, “5FbW,” was exploited to obtain 32,000 Bittensor (TAO) tokens valued at approximately $8 million.
This attack follows a similar incident on June 1, where another wallet was drained of $11.2 million worth of TAO tokens, as reported by ZachXBT.
Following the attack, the price of TAO tokens dropped by 15%. It saw a slight recovery after the Bittensor team assured the community of ongoing measures to prevent further incidents.
On the project’s Discord channel, a Bittensor core team member announced:
“We are investigating, and in an abundance of caution, have recently fully halted transactions on-chain until there is more information available to us about the nature of this attack.”
Co-founder Ala Shaabana confirmed on X that the chain was in “safe mode,” with blocks being produced but no transactions processed. Blockchain trackers indicated that the last transactions and blocks were processed around 23:00 UTC on Tuesday.
Shift in Attack Strategies Amid Crypto Theft
While smart contract vulnerabilities were once the main cause of substantial crypto thefts, private key leaks have become more prevalent.
Mriganka Pattnaik, co-founder and CEO of Merkle Science, stated that hackers now increasingly target areas outside smart contracts, such as private key leaks, often due to phishing attacks or insecure storage practices, leading to significant losses.
In contrast, losses due to smart contract vulnerabilities fell by 92% in 2023, dropping to $179 million from $2.6 billion in 2022.
This year, the crypto market saw a revival following the US SEC’s approval of Bitcoin ETFS in January, which raised the sector’s valuation from $1.76 trillion in February to $2.32 trillion.
However, the industry continues to face major security challenges, as highlighted by various hacking incidents. PeckShield reported that Btcturk experienced the biggest crypto-related hack in June, losing an estimated $100.25 million.
#PeckShieldAlert June 2024 witnessed 20+ hacks in the crypto space, resulting in ~$176.2 million in losses. This marks a decrease of 54.2% from May 2024 (w/ ~$385m in hackers' profits).#Top 5 Hacks:#Btctruk: $100.25 million (CeFi)#Lykke: $22 million (CeFi)#UwULend: $19.4… pic.twitter.com/83XzWf82kw
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) July 1, 2024
Lykke also faced a major hack, resulting in a $22 million loss. Despite these incidents, April saw a notable decline in combined losses from crypto hacks and scams, with only $25.7 million lost, the lowest monthly total since 2021.
In the first quarter of 2024, $336 million was lost to Web3 hackers and fraud, a 23% decrease from the same period in 2023. Notably, seven specific cases have recovered $73.9 million of stolen Web3 capital.
The post Bittensor Halts Network Activity After $8 Million Wallet Drains appeared first on Cryptonews.
Read More