Hackers Steal $7m From Crowdfunding DAO Maker, Three Days After Poly Network Attack

Three days after Poly Network was hacked for $611 million, DAO Maker – another cryptocurrency platform – has been attacked and drained of about $7 million worth of funds overnight.
The platform which offers public token sales for upstart projects revealed the theft on Thursday.
According to the firm, the attack, which was first reported by Wu Blockchain, saw a hacker tap into an exploit of one of the company’s crypto wallets with administrator privileges.
After successfully using the exploit to first steal 10,000 USDC dollar-pegged stablecoins, the attacker proceeded to complete 15 more transactions.
DAO Maker says that 5,251 users had their funds stolen from the platform before its security team could address the exploit, with an average of $1,250 lost per user.
The firm suggests that the hacker focused on high-value accounts, as users with $900 or less worth of funds in their accounts were “completely unaffected.”
DAO Maker has tapped blockchain forensics firm Cipher Blade to aid in the investigation to try to identify the attacker and reclaim the stolen funds.
According to DAO Maker’s post, Cipher Blade has identified an account at cryptocurrency exchange Binance that was used in the attack, and is working with Ethereum block explorer and analytics platform Etherscan to determine more about the hacker.
Additionally, cryptocurrency exchanges have been provided information on the hacker’s wallet.
All deposits into the platform have been deactivated as DAO Maker continues its investigation, and the company will “devise a set of solutions” over the next five days regarding plans to “alleviate the incurred damages” and bring the attacker to justice.
DAO Maker describes itself as a “social mining and community incubation” platform, but essentially it’s a crowdfunding site for tokenized startups.
Unlike a traditional crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo however, DAO Maker is governed by smart contracts—or bits of code that perform a set of instructions—in the form of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
It’s one of many DAO-driven projects working to shake up the world of traditional venture capital funding for startups.
According to a post from DAO Maker CEO, Christoph Zaknun, “We want to assure our investors and supporters—the vaults are safe and the hack has had no detrimental impact on our business.
“Absolutely no one, not even us, has the ability to upgrade the code or remove any DAO from the vaults. As a CEO, this has always been one of my core principles for DAO Maker.”
The DAO Maker attack comes right on the heels of a massive $600 million hack of cross-blockchain interoperability platform Poly Network, the largest cryptocurrency hack to date.
The Poly Network hack took place on Tuesday morning, but in a surprising twist, the attacker – who said they did it just “for fun” – have started returning the funds.
As at Thursday morning, some $342 million worth of funds have been returned to Poly Network.
Omotayo Araoye

Follow us on:

AriseNews

Recent Posts

Gatwick Airport South Terminal Evacuated, Bomb Disposal Team Deployed Suspicious Item Found In Luggage

Gatwick Airport's South Terminal was evacuated after a suspected prohibited item was found, prompting bomb…

10 mins ago

Trump Considers Kevin Warsh for Treasury Secretary, Role Of Chairman Of Federal Reserve

Trump is considering Kevin Warsh for Treasury Secretary, with a future possibility of him becoming…

3 hours ago

Hyundai Recalls 145,235 Electrified Vehicles In The US Due To Power Loss Issue

Hyundai has recalled 145,235 electrified vehicles in the US. due to potential loss of drive…

3 hours ago

‘We’re Going to Begin to License Actors’, Says AGN President in A Bid For Standardisation

AGN president Rollas has stressed the need for actor licensing to ensure fair compensation and…

3 hours ago

EU Closes Antitrust Investigation Into Apple’s App Store Rules After Complaint Withdrawal

EU regulators has closed a four-year investigation into Apple's App Store rules after the complainant…

3 hours ago

IPOB Denounces Simon Ekpa As A ‘Destructive Agent’, Clarifies He Was Never A Member Of The Group

IPOB distanced itself from Simon Ekpa, calling him a “destructive agent” who infiltrated and destabilised…

4 hours ago