According to Cointelegraph: PlayDapp, the South Korean Web3 game development platform, and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has experienced a significant exploit resulting in losses amounting to $290 million. The problem, which emerged on February 9, continued into its fourth day, despite the company's efforts to halt its smart contract for migration.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield detected an apparent leak of PlayDapp's private key, resulting in 200 million of its native PLA tokens being illegally minted, worth approximately $31 million. Another blockchain security firm, Cyvers Alerts, noted that the deployer's address had been compromised and an attacker's address had been added as a minter.
PlayDapp issued a public message to the hacker, offering a reward for the return of the stolen digital assets and hinting at law enforcement involvement if the digital assets weren't returned. The reward offered was $1 million on the condition of returning the assets by February 13. If the deadline wasn't met, the same amount was to be posted as a bounty on the hacker.
Despite these efforts, another 1.59 billion PLA tokens, worth around $253.9 million, were minted on February 12. The hacker may face challenges offloading these, considering the total supply of PLA before the exploit was only 577 million. In the course of the exploit, PLA's value dropped significantly, decreasing its trading volume.
PlayDapp, known for introducing the play-to-earn game "Along with the Gods" on the Polygon blockchain in 2021, has since ceased the game for being 'unsustainable,' although NFTs from the game remain available on the platform's website.