Several high-value accounts, known as “whales,” have been drained of more than $10 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) and other tokens in what looks to be a widespread assault on cryptocurrency wallets. A developer for the well-known wallet service provider MetaMask who goes under the pseudonym “Tay” originally posted about the event on Twitter.
In addition to 5,000 ETH tokens and an unspecified amount of additional tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Tay said that the attack involves other blockchains that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. By itself, the 5,000 ETH tokens are worth around $10 million at the moment.
According to reports, the wallets used by the hack’s victims were all established between 2014 and 2022. However, the attackers’ precise technique is still a mystery.
This is NOT a shady con artist or a lowbrow phishing site. NOT ONE NOOB HAS BEEN REKT BY IT. It ONLY rekts OGs,” Tay remarked, referring to early adopters of cryptocurrencies.
Users of all wallets, including those produced on a hardware wallet or made during the Ethereum presale, have been impacted. The breach seems to be restricted to EVM-compatible chains. Tay claims that the stolen money is being converted into bitcoin before being passed via a currency mixer to hide any traces.
In reaction to the event, Tay encouraged users to divide their funds across many wallets in order to lower the likelihood that they would lose everything. The attack serves as a lesson for cryptocurrency investors to be watchful and implement the necessary security measures to safeguard their money.
