The native token for the Holograph blockchain tokenization platform, $HLG, has plunged by 52% in the last 24 hours after an exploit on the protocol.
A hacker exploited the platform’s protocol and minted 1 billion HLG tokens worth $14.4 million. The token continues to drop despite Holograph confirming to have patched the exploit.
Holograph Exploit Drains $14M
Holograph confirmed the hacking exploit in a post on X. The platform has already patched the initial exploit. It is also working with cryptocurrency exchanges to track and freeze the accounts stolen by the hacker.
“The Holograph Operator contract has been exploited by a malicious actor, enabling the hacker to mint 1 billion additional $HLG. The team has launched an investigation & is contacting law enforcement,” the protocol said.
The 1 billion $HLG tokens stolen by the hacker were minted in nine transactions. The attacker took advantage of a vulnerability in the smart contract to conduct the attack.
The first malicious mint happened on June 13 at 09:47 a.m. UTC. Seven of the transactions executed by the hacker happened in batches of 100 million tokens each.
The exploit triggered panic among $HLG token holders. Within a few minutes, the token started to drop. Nine hours after the exploit happened, $HLG crushed to an all-time low of $0.00296. While it has since bounced back from these record lows, its market cap has dropped to $10 million.
$HLG was trading at $0.007 as of 02:21 a.m. EST. Before the recent hack, $HLG was among the top performers in the market, having clinched an all-time high of $0.0279 on May 25.
Following the recent price drop, the 1 billion stolen $HLG coins are worth $7 billion. However, the hacker has already converted part of his loot to USDT, according to Etherscan.
Holograph Users To Get A Compensatory Refund
Holograph has announced that users will be “issued with a compensatory refund because of the recent exploit.” The plans come as users complain about the hacker dumping billions of tokens on the market.
Some users are also speculating about the root cause of the hack. According to crypto researcher Matt Casto, the exploit appears to have been done by a “rogue dev” that funded the wallet address less than a month ago.
Holograph has yet to address the claims of an insider attack or whether it knows the identity of the exploiter.
The Holograph protocol runs on the Omnichain ecosystem. The smart contract supports the transfer of tokens across blockchains with the same contract address. The protocol seeks to ease access to on-chain data.
Holograph has also received the support of some of the largest venture capitalists in the Web3 industry. These include Animoca Brands and Mechanism Capital.
The recent hack comes as exploits across the cryptocurrency industry intensify, with another exploit also happening on the OKX exchange.
