- Gala CEO says “we messed up our internal controls” after $200 million exploit.
- Attacker managed to sell 600 million tokens worth over $23 million; 4.4 billion GALA are effectively burned.
- GALA token nosedived 20% after the attack to hit lows of $0.038 before seeing a slight recovery.
Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer says “messed up” internal controls led to the security breach that saw 5 billion tokens worth over $200 million minted on Monday.
The attacker proceeded to sell at least 600 million GALA tokens worth about $23 million via the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
In an update, Schiermeyer said the Gala team managed to secure and remove unauthorised access to its smart contract within 45 minutes of the incident.
Measures taken post the exploit included the freezing of 4.4 billion of unsold GALA tokens, which the CEO described as an “effective burn,”
Commenting on the exploit, Schiermeyer said:
“We messed up our internal controls…This shouldn’t have happened and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t ever again. We believe we have identified the culprit and we are currently working with the FBI, DOJ and a network of international authorities.”
Read more: Clash between Gala Games founders sends GALA token crashing
Gala token fell sharply after exploit
GALA price fell sharply following the incident, dropping more than 20% to hit lows of $0.038 as selling pressure mounted.
The token has however rebounded after Gala said the attack did not compromise its ETH smart contract. The platform also noted that the security incident had been contained.
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices spiking late Monday also helped boost GALA token’s price. The top coins shot to highs of $71,980 and $3,710 respectively. This happened amid reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had asked Ethereum spot ETF issuers to file revised form 19b-4s latest May 21, 10 am ET.
Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says the SEC is likely to approve the 19b-4s by Wednesday.
According to CoinGecko data, GALA price is currently poised at $0.041, with 24-hour losses down to about 4.5% at the time of writing.
