Hackers Steal NFT Monkeys on Top Ethereum Layer 2

The Arbitrum-based NFT marketplace Treasure has been hacked. Developers have frozen transactions after hundreds of NFTs have been stolen from the Smol Brains and Legions collection.

Treasure Marketplace was hit by an exploit

The Treasure Marketplace is being abused.

Ethereum Layer 2 Solution Treasure, Arbitrum’s largest NFT marketplace, was attacked early Thursday morning, with hundreds of NFTs stolen. Hackers have found a way to get the NFTs listed on the Treasure Marketplace without paying. Treasure developers responded swiftly by freezing transactions in the market to avoid further damage.

Treasure is the hub of NFTs in the Treasure DAONFT ecosystem. Instead of buying and selling NFTs like OpenSea using Ethereum and Stablecoin, Treasure allows users to trade only using the ecosystem’s home currency, the MAGIC token.According to the blockchain security company PeckShieldThe attacker has found a way to manipulate the prices of NFTs listed in Treasure to make it possible to buy NFTs with 0MAGIC tokens.

PeckShield estimates that over 100 NFTs were stolen from the market before developers froze transactions. At one address, 17 pixel art monkeys appear to have been stolen from the Smol Brains collection. When purchased at the original list price, these NFTs will cost buyers over $ 1.4 million in MAGIC tokens when hacked. Another popular collection, called Smol Brains and Legions, seems to be on the brunt of exploits as it is currently Treasure’s most valuable and actively traded NFT. The cheapest Smol Brains usually trade for around $ 9,500 today.

Exploit news spread online, causing MAGIC token prices to plummet, bottoming out with a 33% loss before showing a slight recovery. MAGIC is currently trading at $ 3.38, down 11% from its pre-exploit level.

In response to this exploit, Treasure DAO’s Gouda Gaarp used Discord to reassure the Treasure community. “We would like to express our deepest condolences to those affected by today’s exploits,” they write. GoudaGaarp further explained that TreasureDAO has frozen the Treasure Marketplace while waiting for a complete code review. TreasureDAO will also play an active role in distributing NFTs to legitimate owners, proposing several remediation options to ensure that users are complete.

However, as the situation progressed, many hackers seemed to change their minds.Twitter users posting under handle @ Br0keboy96 It pointed out Transaction data from Arbiscan shows that dozens of NFTs stolen from Treasure have been returned to their legitimate owners. Perhaps the hacker realized that the stolen NFT could not be cashed out because TreasureDAO plans to freeze the transaction and blacklist all stolen NFTs.

As the popularity of NFTs soars, exploits and hacks targeting the NFT marketplace are increasing. Last month, phishing email hackers were able to steal millions of dollars worth of NFTs from unsuspecting OpenSea users. DeFi protocols and cross-chain bridges are usually popular targets for hackers, but as the value and popularity of non-fungible tokens grows, attacks on applications such as Treasure can increase.

Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.