Two Fantom Foundation wallets on Ethereum and the Fantom Network fell victim to a phishing attack, losing more than $650,000, according to reports reports from CertiK, a blockchain security company. Another report from “Spreekaway” about X claims that one of Fantom’s team members also lost $3.4 million.
Fantom Foundation falls victim to phishing attack
Fantom Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the growth and development of the Fantom ecosystem. On the other hand, Fantom is a scalable, layer-1 blockchain that is compatible with Ethereum. Just like the most valuable network in the world, the platform supports the use of smart contracts. To be clear, Fantom’s network has not been hacked; the foundation’s portfolios were compromised.
According to CertiK, the Fantom Foundation lost $470,000 on Fantom and at least $187,000 on Ethereum. After the attack, Ether scans the data show that the scammers pooled their money into one account, with at least $7 million in different currencies. The address has already been flagged and identified as a facilitator of multiple phishing campaigns affecting crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
Reported on Reddit show that Fantom Foundation fell victim to a zero day exploit on Chrome, a web browser, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of FTMs. In a screenshot of a Telegram conversation allegedly shared by a Fantom administrator, the foundation acknowledged that “part” of their wallet was “empty.” They actively monitor the movement of stolen money.
Zero Day Exploit, FTM sinks even lower
A zero-day exploit is a vulnerability that is unknown to the developer or their engineering team and may be able to fix it. Because the flaw is not known to the team, the threat actor can exploit it until it is patched. This is why zero-day exploits can have consequences, especially for DeFi protocols whose infrastructure relies on flawed software.
In the same screenshot shared on Reddit, a Fantom Foundation representative said they had not updated their browser to the latest version. The latest Chrome browser update, version 118.0.5993.70, was issued on October 11.
Following this news, the FTM fell about 5% and is now hovering close to multi-month lows. If the bears continue, the currency could fall below the 2022 low.
As such, it will reverse all gains from the first half of 2023. At this year’s highs, FTM prices rose as high as $0.65 in February 2023 before falling to spot rates. The coin is trading at around $0.17 and is under heavy selling pressure.
Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView