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Gala Games Hacker Returns $23 Million in ETH; The founder proposes “Buy and burn”
Gala Games received ETH tokens worth nearly $23 million from the hacker who minted and then sold native ETH tokens worth hundreds of millions on Monday (GALA) token, according to on-chain records and statements in Gala’s Discord server.
The change in fortunes leaves Gala with an unexpected gain of $23 million in ETH tokens. “We will probably buy and burn on galaswap,” project CEO Eric Schiermeyer, also known as Benefactor, said on his Discord server. This means using ETH to purchase GALA tokens and then taking them out of circulation.
Gala Games is a blockchain gaming platform with a variety of video games where players hold NFTs and other crypto assets. The GALA token is the platform’s currency for buying and selling game assets.
The move comes a day after an unidentified hacker exploited Gala Internal Controls will mint 5 billion new GALA tokens. The individual then sold 600 million tokens on decentralized exchanges and earned nearly 6,000 ETH tokens. The wallet associated with the hack on Tuesday transferred all of his ETH on a wallet controlled by Gala Games.
“We believe we have identified the perpetrator and are currently working with the FBI, the Department of Justice and a network of international authorities,” Schiermeyer said Monday.
The exploit caused GALA’s price to drop as much as 19% on Monday, as traders worried about the implications of increased circulating supply and selling pressure from the hackers.
On Tuesday, Gala investor DWF Labs said it had purchased 28 million GALA tokens “to ease selling pressures in the market.”
At the time of writing, GALA was trading at around $0.43, still below yesterday’s pre-hack levels.