Hacker Returns $22M to Gala Games Post GALA Token Exploit

As a seasoned crypto investor with a keen eye for market trends and a deep understanding of the risks involved, I can’t help but be impressed by Gala Games’ swift response to the recent exploit on their system. The quick actions taken not only halted the circulation of compromised tokens but also resulted in the return of a significant portion of the stolen funds.


A hacker, who gained unauthorized access to Gala Games’ token generation system and produced and sold approximately 600 million GALA tokens, subsequently returned $22 million worth of Ether following prompt response and intervention from law enforcement agencies.

Exploited Funds Returned

Gala Games managed to retrieve around $22 million worth of Ether after a major hack on May 20. In this incident, an unknown hacker took advantage of weak internal controls and produced approximately 5 billion new GALA tokens. Subsequently, they sold 600 million of these fake tokens on decentralized markets, earning around 6,000 ETH in return.

On May 21st, a hacker’s wallet transferred back 5,913.2 Ether, equivalent to around $22.3 million, to a wallet managed by Gala Games. This was confirmed by Jason Brink, President of Blockchain at Gala Games, who provided on-chain data as proof. The information revealed that the label “Gala Games Exploiter” belonged to the wallet from which this large amount of Ether had been returned. At present values, this sum equated to approximately $22.37 million.

Swift Response and Blocklist Protocol

In a blog post published on May 21, Gala Games acknowledged the recovery of stolen funds, crediting their quick action and collaboration with federal law enforcement for the successful outcome. Upon noticing the suspicious transfer of $200 million worth of GALA tokens, Gala promptly engaged their newly implemented GalaChain blocklist protocol – a security measure intended to halt circulation of compromised tokens. Consequently, over 88% of the freshly minted 5 billion GALA tokens, amounting to 4.4 billion tokens, were effectively frozen within a short span of 45 minutes.

CEO Eric Schiermeyer revealed that the team worked together with organizations like the FBI and Department of Justice to trace the hacker.

Governance and Future Actions

Gala Games explained that the recent issue only affected the Ethereum network. They proposed a new vote among Founders Nodes to decide if blocked GALA tokens will be treated as destroyed, in accordance with Gala’s flexible supply management plan mentioned in the Gala Ecosystem Blueprint.

The surprise reappearance of Ethereum tokens results in an unwanted $23 million bonus for Gala. According to Schiermeyer’s Discord update, the team is considering using these Ethereum funds to repurchase and retire an equal number of GALA tokens. Retiring tokens implies taking them out of circulation permanently, which could lead to a decrease in the total supply and potentially boosting the worth of the remaining tokens.

Market Reaction and Stabilization Efforts

The market has shown favorable reactions to DWF Labs’ recent move. They bought 28 million GALA tokens from the open market to secure the token’s value and safeguard their investment. This action led to a 0.4% price hike in the last 24 hours, pushing GALA up to $0.043, and a 9.3% surge over the past week.

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2024-05-22 17:13