PlayDapp Faces Ongoing Exploitation, Losses Soar to $290 Million

The South Korean NFT and game platform grapples with a persistent hack, revealing vulnerabilities.

In an unsettling turn of events, PlayDapp has declared a temporary cessation of its smart contract, marking the fourth day of an incessant hacking spree against the South Korean Web3 game developer and NFT marketplace. The platform, reeling from a private key leak on Feb. 9, announced this latest development just before 11:00 am UTC on Feb. 13.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield identified a potential private key compromise at PlayDapp when a staggering 200 million native PLA tokens, valued at $31 million at the time, were illicitly minted. Cyvers Alerts, another blockchain security entity, shed light on the situation in a Feb. 9 X post, noting, “It seems that deployer’s address has been compromised and attacker’s address is added as a minter.”

On Feb. 10, PlayDapp took to X with a message directly addressing the hacker, proposing a reward for the recovery of stolen contracts and assets. Simultaneously, the platform issued a stern warning, threatening to involve law enforcement, including the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), if no response was received. During the period between Feb. 9 and 12, PlayDapp's customer service was rendered unavailable.

An Elliptic blog post revealed that the offered reward stood at $1 million, contingent on the return of contracts and assets by Feb. 13. The same amount would be offered as a bounty on the hacker if the conditions were not met. Despite the warning, the stolen assets were not returned by the deadline.

PlayDapp, collaborating with blockchain analytics and security firms, centralized exchanges, and law enforcement, is actively working to mitigate the repercussions of the hack, as stated in a Medium post.

Elliptic further disclosed that an additional 1.59 billion PLA tokens, valued at $253.9 million, were minted on Feb. 12. However, the hackers might face challenges selling these unlawfully minted tokens since the total supply of PLA before the hack stood at only 577 million.

The value of PLA experienced a significant decline, plummeting from $0.1823 with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.83 million at the beginning of Feb. 9 to $0.1482, with a volume of $60.17 million at the time of writing. While the current value represents a slight uptick from a low of $0.1420 earlier in the day, the aftermath of the hack has undoubtedly impacted PLA's market standing, as per CoinMarketCap.

PlayDapp initially introduced the play-to-earn game "Along with the Gods" on the Polygon blockchain in 2021. However, in May 2023, the game service was discontinued due to its perceived unsustainability. Despite the game's closure, NFTs from "Along with the Gods" remain available on the PlayDapp website.

(Photo Source / Blockonome)