Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses $1.3M in phishing hack, launches compensation fund
On Tuesday, Solana nonfungible token (NFT) undertaking Monkey Kingdom, which has obtained notable backing from American DJ Steve Aoki, introduced through Twitter that hackers made off with $1.3 million of the group’s crypto funds via a safety breach on Discord.
In response to its builders, the hack first occurred with the breach of Grape, a well-liked resolution for verifying customers on Solana. Hackers then used the exploit to take over an administrative account, which posted a phishing hyperlink within the Monkey Kingdom Discord’s announcement channel. Customers who adopted the hyperlink related their wallets anticipating they might obtain an NFT however as an alternative had been drained of their SOL tokens by the scammer.
Announcement on the discord hack pic.twitter.com/1r7svjlZcB
— Monkey Kingdom (@MonkeyKingdom_) December 21, 2021
Tragically, the hack happened when customers had been lining up for the undertaking’s second drop. The Monkey Kingdom consists of two,222 algorithmically-generated NFTs centered round Solar Wukong, in any other case generally known as “The Monkey King” in Chinese language folklore. All proceeds from the preliminary sale of the NFTs had been to go to a charity of selection, with the intent of supporting Asian communities worldwide. It was one of the vital profitable NFT tasks to have originated in Asia.
Guys I obtained drained 650 $SOL.
It’s one my largest mistake.
I’m all the time recommending individuals utilizing burner however I used to be nervous and fomo the Monkey Kingdom Mint. By no means thought it was not a legit mint hyperlink in official discord.
It is vital cash to my household: my spouse, my son. pic.twitter.com/rtWbCu81Ga
— commenstar (@commenstar) December 21, 2021
Associated: Beeple’s Discord compromised, timed to coincide with Christie’s public sale
One Twitter consumer, who goes by the identify of “commenstar,” claims to have misplaced 650 SOL, value roughly $120,400, as a result of rip-off. However all was not misplaced. The employees at Monkey Kingdom has put aside a compensation fund for victims and is on monitor to completely reimburse these affected. The timeline and course of for distributing the funds has not but been disclosed.
Phishing assaults are nothing new for the crypto trade. Over the previous yr, scammers have been repeatedly focusing on Discord customers and exploiting the platform, itself, to orchestrate such NFT hacks.
Monkey Kingdom group, we’ve got your again! We’ve got begun processing compensation requests and can be contacting people beginning immediately. Thanks on your persistence! When you obtain your compensation, please kindly share the information with the group. For the Kingdom!! pic.twitter.com/TVbuSqdKtq
— Monkey Kingdom (@MonkeyKingdom_) December 22, 2021
