EigenLayer Reports Email Hack and Theft of 1.67 Million EIGEN

The team behind the EigenLayer restaking protocol reported a hack in which an attacker compromised their email chain and stole 1.67 million EIGEN (~$6 million). The stolen tokens were sold through an unnamed DeFi platform, with the proceeds transferred to centralized exchanges.

Community Update:

In an isolated incident this morning, an email thread involving one investor’s transfer of tokens into custody was compromised by a malicious attacker.

As a result, 1,673,645 EIGEN tokens were erroneously transferred to the attacker’s address. The attacker…

— EigenLayer (@eigenlayer) October 4, 2024

“We are in contact with these platforms and law enforcement. A portion of the funds has already been frozen. The compromise did not affect the protocol or token contracts,” said the EigenLayer team.

The investigation is ongoing, and further details will be provided later. In the aftermath of the incident, the EIGEN token has dropped 7.6% in value over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko. At the time of writing, EIGEN is trading at $3.28.

EigenLayer Developments

On October 1, EIGEN tokens were listed on major exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, Gate.io, Bitget, MEXC, KuCoin, Uniswap, and others.

On September 30, the developers lifted the transfer restrictions on tokens, allowing users to freely trade and send their coins, including rewards from airdrops.