Gala Games (GALA) recovered its funds after the hacker decided to return the gains from the exploit. In a recent unauthorized minting exploit, 5B new GALA tokens were created and converted to ETH. The hacker returned the ETH, leaving Gala Games with additional unauthorized tokens.
After the hacker decided to return the funds, Gala Games received 5,913 ETH, which, following the recent price rally, is valued at more than $22M.
Despite the windfall, Gala Games will defend its native token by using ETH to purchase the assets. Gala Games will also refund all affected users while voting on a proposition to burn 5B tokens and restore the original supply of GALA.
GALA supplies 35B tokens, so an additional mint of this size is significant. The additional tokens are traded through the native exchange, Gala Swap. In total, the hacker managed to swap only around 600K GALA tokens, while the rest were blacklisted before reaching exchanges.
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Gala Games was among the top earners and a blue chip token during the 2021 boom of play-to-earn. The project’s main feature was Town Star, a metaverse and simulation game. Additionally, Gala Games supported NFT minting. Most of the Gala Games products have switched to free-to-play, ranging from idle games and simulated farming to sci-fi action shooters like Voyager: Ascension.
GALA Tokens Rally After Exploit Reversal
Dealing with an ethical hacker was beneficial for GALA’s price. The token rose by around 10% overnight to trade at $0.046.
The low-volume rally also lifted GALA by 15% this week. GALA has been a relatively stable token, while the project focused on its ecosystem, games, nodes and musical products. GALA has not seen a significant breakout since late 2021, when the asset peaked close to $0.80.
Gala Games is one of the biggest play-to-earn and Web3 projects, aiming for sustainability and long-term development. For that reason, GALA remains a stagnant token with limited GameFi exposure. GALA is important for staking and running the various nodes of the Gala Games ecosystem.
Gala Games Immediately Froze the Hacker’s Addresses
The nature of the Gala Games hack remains uncertain, though it involved minting GALA worth $200M.
Gala Games intercepted the large transaction, which created tokens on the Ethereum network. The hacker swapped only around $21M worth of GALA before the project blacklisted the unauthorized wallet.
Gala Games has installed updates to control its smart contracts and avoid unauthorized token generation events. The latest exploit is the biggest one for Gala Games. Gala Chain, the project’s native network, remains secure and has not been compromised.
Eric Schiermeyer, the CEO of Gala Games, also pointed out the GALA token contract on the Ethereum blockchain is not compromised, and hinted at internal controls that may have allowed the exploit.
The recent hack happened just days after Gala Games launched its V2 token, which the team now controls better, including transfers, minting, and burns.
Gala Games V1 Tokens Continue Trading a Year After Swap
The recent exploit generated 5B of GALA V2 tokens. Gala Games swapped its token just about a year ago, installing the controls that allowed the project to blocklist the hacker’s wallet.
GALA V1 tokens, however, are still available for swapping through the Coinbase wallet, though they have been delisted from the exchange itself. What is curious is that GALA V1 is trading at a premium price of $0.08, with no real utility in the gaming ecosystem.
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The token’s old smart contract is still active, and GALA V1 tokens are traded on SushiSwap or sent to decentralized protocols. To be swapped for V2, all GALA tokens had to be manually removed from pools, staking, and DeFi protocols. The swap was inconvenient for some users, and the tokens are still active.
A year after the swap, Coinbase has not mentioned plans to relist Gala Games with the new token version. Meanwhile, a sidelight is that after four years at Gala Games, its president of blockchain, Jason Brink (aka BitBender), has posted an official statement with his resignation, albeit to become an unpaid advisor. A few other team members are also leaving the company. What are some side issues that we need to see?
GALA V2 reached the wallets of nearly 223K holders, down from 260K holders for the old smart contract.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva
