Following a security breach, hackers managed to steal nearly $8 million worth of TAO, the token of the Bittsensor project. What happened?
Bittensor Blockchain Hack: A Blow to the Decentralized AI Project
Bittensor, a project that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, suffered a major hack this morning. Nearly $8 million was stolen by the criminals in the form of TAO, Bittensor's token.
According to initial investigations, The hacker allegedly exploited a private key leak to access victims' wallets. As a reminder, private keys are essential elements in the security of cryptocurrencies and their compromise can have disastrous consequences.
👉 Learn more about how private keys work – Private Keys, Public Keys, and Addresses in Bitcoin
Faced with these incidents, Bittensor developers have made the decision to suspend the network in order to limit damage and potential losses. Blockchain explorer Bittensor reveals that the last block was validated about 3 hours ago, confirming the network shutdown.
According to on-chain analyst ZachXBT's estimates, Approximately 32,000 TAO tokens were stolen. It was probably this information that prompted the foundation to take measures to protect the network and its users.
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A significant impact on the price of the TAO token
This hack did not fail to have repercussions on the price of TAO, the token of the Bittsensor platform. Indeed, a drop of around 15% has been observed since the incident, and the TAO token is around $235 at the time of writing.
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Despite the seriousness of the attack, TAO price saw a slight rebound after Bittensor team members reassured the community about the steps taken to strengthen the platform's security. Developers are currently working to identify the origin of the attack and implement additional protections to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
By way of an update, we have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode (blocks producing but no transactions are permitted).
We are still mid investigation and are considering all possibilities. Stay tuned.
— Ala (@shibshib89) July 3, 2024
As the investigation continues to determine the extent of the attack and identify those responsible, The TAO Foundation has not yet released official details regarding the stolen funds.
The project team is currently focused on resolving the security breach and implementing preventative measures to protect its users. The resumption of activity around the Bittensor network will depend in part on the effectiveness of these actions, but also on the transparency of the team with its community.
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