The PlayDapp crypto-gaming platform recently fell victim to a significant security breach, resulting in the loss of $PLA tokens valued at $290 million. Reports attribute this theft to the leakage of private keys, and despite offering a $1 million reward for the return of the stolen assets, the attackers have yet to respond.
Based in South Korea, PlayDapp suffered a major setback on February 9 when hackers executed a heist, stealing $36 million. The breach involved the unauthorized minting of 200 PLA tokens. Investigations revealed that the theft was facilitated by a compromised private key. In an attempt to recover the stolen funds, PlayDapp reached out to the hackers via an on-chain transaction, urging them to return the assets by February 13. Unfortunately, the appeal for negotiation was unsuccessful, as the platform noted in a statement that the hackers displayed no intention of returning the funds.
Compounding the situation, on February 12, the attacker minted an additional 1.59 billion PLA tokens, valued at $254 million, and began laundering them across various cryptocurrency exchanges. According to Elliptic, a blockchain security firm, this move significantly inflated the number of PLA tokens in circulation. Before the attack, there were 577 million PLA tokens available; the sudden influx of 1.8 billion newly minted tokens has yet to be fully liquidated by the attacker.
In response to these events, PlayDapp announced via their X account their intention to engage law enforcement and the FBI if the stolen funds were not returned by February 13. The platform also offered a bounty equivalent to the stolen amount, aiming to foster collaboration with Web3 security providers in recovering the assets. Despite these efforts, there was no communication from the attackers by the deadline.
As of now, PlayDapp is coordinating with centralized exchanges and blockchain security companies to address the breach. The platform has temporarily suspended the PLA smart contract and advised users to cease transactions in anticipation of a planned migration.
The value of the $PLA token has experienced a downturn in the wake of these events. At the time of writing, $PLA’s value stood at $0.15, marking a 2.34% decrease in daily transactions, as per data from CoinMarketCap.