After a major exploit on Monday where 5 billion GALA tokens were minted and stolen, Gala Games has received some of the funds back in Ethereum (ETH) while still addressing the aftermath and investigating the incident.
Return of the Ethereum
The yet-to-be-identified attacker behind the $240 million Gala Games token exploit returned approximately 5,913 ETH, equivalent to about $22 million, to a Gala wallet on Tuesday morning. These funds were earned from selling 600 million GALA tokens on the decentralized exchange Uniswap shortly after the exploit.
In a statement on Gala’s Discord server, CEO Eric “Benefactor” Schiermeyer indicated that the firm might “buy and burn” GALA tokens using the recovered ETH. This move could potentially increase the token’s price following the dip caused by the exploit.
Details of the Exploit
On Monday, a wallet with administrative access to the GALA token minting contract minted 5 billion GALA tokens, worth approximately $240 million at the time. The attacker began selling the tokens on the open market. Gala Games managed to block further sales within 45 minutes, thanks to a function built into its v2 contract upgrade from last fall. By then, the attacker had sold 600 million GALA tokens, causing the token’s price to plunge by 20%.
Gala Games published a blog post recounting the attack and the firm’s countermeasures. The post assured the community that the minting capabilities of $GALA on GalaChain remain secure and uncompromised. Schiermeyer admitted that Gala had “messed up” in terms of internal controls but vowed to take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
Current Status of the Stolen Tokens
Approximately 4.4 billion GALA tokens, nearly 9% of the total supply of 50 billion GALA tokens, remain frozen in the attacker’s wallet. Initially, Schiermeyer considered these tokens “effectively burned” as they were inaccessible. However, the community of Gala network node operators will soon vote on whether these blocklisted GALA tokens should be considered burned as per the Gala Ecosystem Blueprint.
Gala Games is actively working to recover from the $240 million token exploit. With some funds already returned, the firm is focusing on securing its systems and ensuring such breaches do not happen again. The community’s involvement in deciding the fate of the remaining tokens highlights the decentralized and collaborative nature of the blockchain ecosystem
