Bittensor Wallet Breach Results in $8M Loss, TAO Token Drops 15%

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Decentralized AI project TAO of Bittensor ceased the operation of its blockchain network after a breach affected several users’ wallets. Following this, on-chain analyst ZachXBT was reporting thefts likely to have occurred due to leaked private keys. Over $8 million worth of TAO, around 32,000 tokens, were stolen which led to a significant 15% decrease in the token value from $281 to $234.

The initial indications of the strange transactions were noticed by ZachXBT, who said that the violation could be associated with the leakage of private keys. The Bittensor community Discord administrator provided a statement, which stated that all transactions were stopped to avoid further processes without authorization while the situation is being looked into. 

The last recorded block on Bittensor’s Explorer was some three hours before the time of the network shut down.

Immediate response by the team

Jacob Robert Steeves, co-founder of Bittensor Network acknowledged the development and said: “The suspension of the network is because developers are looking into some issues as they work to resolve them. ”The Bittensor team claimed that the network is safe and focused on the extent of the problem and hacks.

The administrator, const [т, T], stated on Discord, “We are looking into what seems to have been an attack on the Bittensor wallets over the last 3 hours: […] All chains are paused until further notice. ”

Market impact

After the incident, the TAO token price dropped considerably. Information retrieved from Taostats revealed that in the same one-day period, it fell nearly 15 per cent which is a large blow to the market. As of writing this article, the Opentensor Foundation, the organization that developed the Bittensor protocol, has not released official information regarding the hack.

Now as the Bittensor developers try to fix the vulnerability and get to the root of the attack, the community awaits the outcome.

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