Social tokens plummet after Roll loses $6M to crypto hackers

Social money platform Roll says it “messed up” after hackers emptied the company’s hot wallet of nearly $6 million worth of crypto tokens.

The attack on Sunday caused the price of a slew of affected tokens, including FWB, WHALE, and MORK, to collapse by more than half.

The WHALE token had been on a roll before the attack, reaching an all-time high on Saturday of $52.56. Despite falling sharply, WHALE remains up more than 1,000% since its initial listings in May 2020.

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Two hours ago, someone sold a huge amount of social tokens issued on Roll platform.

As a result, an attacker earned almost 3k ETH ($5.7M), of which 700 have already been sent to Tornado Cash.

Most of social token prices dumped as a result. pic.twitter.com/WmdMogBBnd

— Igor Igamberdiev (@FrankResearcher) March 14, 2021

In a statement, Roll said that the attack was likely due to a compromise of its wallet’s private keys rather than a bug in its smart or token contracts.

Whoever carried out the attack sold the stolen crypto almost immediately via Ethereum-powered decentralized exchange Uniswap.

They then transferred hundreds of ETH to crypto tumbler Tornado Cash  — presumably an effort to cover their tracks.

[Read more: Gab grapples with 70GB leak, claims hacker demanded Bitcoin ransom]

$JOON, a social token affected by the hack, centers around crypto journalist and influencer Joon Ian Wong. Joon told Protos the incident was “no biggie” despite the hackers stealing around 20% of its supply (worth roughly $860).

As for Roll, the firm says it’s now investigating with its infrastructure provider and assisting relevant law enforcement.

Protos has reached out to Roll for further comment and we’ll update this piece should we receive a reply.