Security News > 2024 > February > Hackers mint 1.79 billion crypto tokens from PlayDapp gaming platform
Hackers are believed to have used a stolen private key to mint and steal over 1.79 billion PLA tokens, a cryptocurrency used within the PlayDapp ecosystem.
PlayDapp is a blockchain-based platform that uses and trades non-fungible tokens within games, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade digital assets across various games without intermediaries.
To safeguard PLA assets until the situation was remediated, the platform transferred all PlayDapp-held tokens to a new, secure wallet.
The offer did not convince the hackers, as on February 12, 01:01:47 PM +UTC, they minted a massive 1.59 billion PLA tokens, worth $253.9 million based on the value of the tokens, taking the total tally up to $290.4 million.
Cryptocurrency experts at Elliptic noted that the amount minted surpasses the total number of PLA tokens in circulation before the breach, so these tokens would have to be sold far below their market value, if they could be sold at all.
This massive loss prompted PlayDapp to request the suspension of all PLA trading on decentralized exchanges and the withdrawal of all PLA tokens from liquidity pools.