On the evening of October 17th, the wallet of the Fantom Foundation was unexpectedly attacked, resulting in a loss of $657,000. This incident marks one of the disruptions in the blockchain space this month. While the monetary loss itself may not be substantial, it had a significant impact on the network.
Immediately after discovering the issue, the development team swiftly launched an investigation and addressed the problem. It was revealed that the main reason for the withdrawal of funds from the Fantom Foundation’s wallet was a long-standing vulnerability in the Chrome browser.
According to reports, Ethereum and Fantom wallets of the organization were targeted by hackers. The likely form of attack was phishing, with fake websites being used.
The Fantom team clarified that the suspicious activities occurred mainly with hot wallets, while the majority of the organization’s assets were stored in cold wallets.
In addition to the Fantom Foundation’s wallet, several other members within the organization fell victim to personal wallet attacks. Andre Cronje, the core developer of the Fantom Foundation, stated that some Fantom employees had lost $7 million in personal assets.
If the damage turns out to be greater than estimated, it could lead to a crisis for the Fantom Foundation and especially its Fantom ecosystem, affecting both public perception and product development.
Prior to this incident, the Multichain bridge issue had already impacted the total locked value on the network. Additionally, the Fantom ecosystem had been receiving news of key project shutdowns.
However, this incident is not an isolated case, as digital platforms are facing increasing threats. Recently, TrueUSD suffered a breach due to a third-party provider’s vulnerability, exposing customer data. The Web3 platform, Galxe, also fell victim to a DNS attack, resulting in nearly $500,000 in damages. These events highlight the escalating digital battle targeting blockchain and DeFi projects.