Two Fantom Foundation wallets on Ethereum and the Fantom Network have fallen victim to a phishing attack, losing over $650,000, in keeping with reports from CertiK, a blockchain security firm. One other report by “Spreakaway” on X alleges that one in every of Fantom’s team members also lost $3.4 million.
Fantom Foundation Falls Victim To Phishing Attack
Fantom Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the expansion and development of the Fantom ecosystem. However, Fantom is a scalable, layer-1 blockchain that’s compatible with Ethereum. Just like the world’s Most worthy network, the platform supports the deployment of smart contracts. For clarity, Fantom’s network was not hacked; the muse’s wallets were compromised.
In response to CertiK, the Fantom Foundation lost $470,000 on Fantom and at the very least $187,000 on Ethereum. Following the attack, Etherscan data show that the scammers consolidated funds into one account, holding at the very least $7 million of assorted coins. The address has already been marked and identified as a facilitator of multiple phishing campaigns impacting crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
Fantom Foundation stolen funds| Source: Etherscan
Reports on Reddit show that Fantom Foundation fell victim to a “zero day” exploit on Chrome, an online browser, leading to the lack of tons of of 1000’s value of FTM. In a screenshot of a Telegram conversation said to have been shared by a Fantom admin, the muse acknowledged that “some” of their wallets were “drained.” They’re actively tracking the movement of stolen funds.
Telegram communication| Source: Reddit
Zero Day Exploit, FTM Sinks Even Lower
A zero-day exploit is a vulnerability unknown to the developer or its tech team, who might have the option to repair it. Since the flaw isn’t known to the team, the threat actor can exploit it until it’s patched. Because of this zero-day exploits may be consequential, especially for DeFi protocols whose infrastructure relies on flawed software.
In the identical screenshot shared on Reddit, a representative of Fantom Foundation said they didn’t update their browser to the newest version. The most recent Chrome browser update, version 118.0.5993.70, was released on October 11.
FTM price on October 17| Source: FTMUSDT on Binance, TradingView
Following this news, FTM fell roughly 5% and is now rocking near multi-month lows. If bears press on, the coin may drop below 2022 lows.
As such, it is going to reverse all gains made in the primary half of 2023. At this 12 months’s peaks, FTM prices rose to as high as $0.65 in February 2023 before contracting to identify rates. The coin is trading at roughly $0.17 and under intense selling pressure.
Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView