AirDAO Suffers Crippling Crypto Heist

Today, in the early morning, the AirDAO ecosystem was in chaos after the project’s leaders revealed that hackers had stolen over $870,000 worth of digital assets from the project’s funds. 

AirDAO Cyber Heist: Response and Recovery Updates

According to a post on X from the AirDAO team on Mar. 21, an unknown hacker hacked the platform’s defenses by using a complex social engineering scheme to steal 126.5 ETH and 41.61 million AMB tokens from AirDAO’s AMB/ETH Uniswap liquidity pool.

The AirDAO team has identified a theft of 35.2m AMB tokens and 125.51 ETH from our AMB/ETH Uniswap pool. We are working with exchanges and relevant authorities to identify the hacker and retrieve all stolen funds. If the hacker returns the funds immediately we will pay a white… pic.twitter.com/lGWrT6ZCWJ

— AirDAO (@airdao_io) March 21, 2024

AirDAO has admitted that the person who did this got in by pretending to be “one of our known partners” in a malicious email file full of malware. However, the specifics of their criminal activities are still a mystery. This meticulously crafted phishing scheme allowed the cyber-criminal to bypass the platform’s safeguards and siphon a substantial portion of its liquidity reserves.

#PeckShieldAlert @airdao_io has reported that they suffered a hack,resulting in the loss of 126.5 $ETH & 41.61M $AMB.
The hacker has transferred the stolen funds to #MEXC, #ChangeNOW and #KuCoin https://t.co/W8rnC6oKeg pic.twitter.com/WLdvAlnbeg

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 21, 2024

To mitigate the fallout and potentially recover the stolen cryptocurrencies, AirDAO has extended an olive branch to the hacker, offering a 10% bounty if the stolen funds are promptly returned. However, the team has sternly cautioned that further inaction will prompt the involvement of law enforcement agencies tasked with bringing the perpetrator to justice.

According to data from blockchain security firms PeckShield and SlowMist, portions of the stolen assets have already been traced to prominent centralized exchanges like MEXC, KuCoin, ChangeNOW, Binance, and BitMart. 

SlowMist Security Alert@airdao_io was exploited, including 126.5 $ETH and 41.61 million $AMB.

According to @MistTrack_io , the hacker address interacts with multiple platforms, such as #Binance, #MEXC, #ChangeNOW, #KuCoin, and #BitMart.

We have blocked the relevant… pic.twitter.com/z2s7Mj6LCU

— SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) March 21, 2024

Official statements from these trading platforms about the incident have not yet been made. Still, AirDAO has stated that it is working with them and the relevant authorities to find the hacker and return the stolen funds.