The Bittensor blockchain team detected an attack on several user wallets, temporarily halting the system. Unfortunately, one wallet was drained of $8 million worth of the project’s TAO tokens. According to Bittensor’s block explorer, the most recent block was confirmed approximately 7 hours ago.
According to on-chain analyst ZachXBT, the announcement mentioned a possible connection between the thefts and leaked private keys. “Bittensor was halted due to additional thefts earlier today potentially as a result of private key leakage,” he explained in a Telegram update.
Bittensor wallets hacked – ZachXBT
ZachXBT reports that the foundation’s decision to safeguard the network against future incidents was likely due to the theft of $8 million worth of TAO, which is equivalent to approximately 32,000 native Bittensor (TAO) tokens.
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In June, ZachXBT also reported another Bittensor hack. He noted that “A TAO holder had $11.2M (28.2K TAO) stolen (https://x.taostats.io/extrinsic/3086433-0007) from them on June 1, 2024.”
The attacker bridged the stolen funds to Ethereum and has been selling TAO for ETH and USDC. As of now, they have 12.4K TAO ($5M) remaining and have been transferring USDC/ETH to Whitebit, HTX, & Binance.
ZachXBT
According to reports, investigations are ongoing into the attack, which is believed to have been caused by a leakage of private keys. As a precautionary measure, Bittensor has been put into “safe mode” to halt further transactions until more information becomes available.
The purported decentralized AI project adds, “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.”
TAO market performance
TAO prices dropped significantly, up to 15%, following the attack, but there was a slight recovery as core members reassured investors that measures were being taken to prevent future incidents. Bittensor core team member wrote on the project’s Discord channel that:
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.
Bittensor.
TAO fell by 13% following the hacking of TAO validators, which resulted in the chain being suspended for investigation. Bittensor (TAO) is currently valued at $236.10, representing a 1.0% increase from one hour ago. Today, the value of TAO is 16.8% lower than it was seven days ago.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Florence Muchai
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