Gnus.AI Discord Hack Leads to $1.27M Loss: Token-Minting Exploit and Recovery Efforts

The Gnus.AI artificial intelligence network fell victim to a token-minting exploit on May 5, resulting in losses of approximately $1.27 million. The attack involved the attacker gaining access to the team's private Discord messages, allowing them to obtain the private key to the team's account starting with 0x18. With this access, the attacker copied the token's "salt" data from Ethereum and used the Axelar bridge protocol to create a Fantom network version of the token, through which they minted 100 million fake GNUS tokens. These tokens were then sold into the market, causing a price crash and transferring wealth from existing token holders to the attacker. To mitigate the losses, Gnus.AI announced plans to release a new version of the Genius (GNUS) token, with the team depositing $1 million worth of Ether and owed fees into a liquidity pool for the new token. While blockchain networks remain vulnerable to exploits, there are indications of improving security practices, with fewer losses reported from exploits in April compared to previous years.