The Twitter account of top non-fungible token (NFT) project, Azuki, was compromised on Friday, resulting in the loss of over $750,000 worth of crypto assets. Following a takeover of the project’s account yesterday afternoon, hackers posted a wallet drainer link disguised as an invitation for users to participate in a virtual land mint in The Garden, Azuki’s native metaverse platform.
Wallet drainers function as phishing mechanisms designed to trick unsuspecting victims into approving transactions that transfer crypto assets, such as cryptocurrency or non-fungible tokens, from their wallet to that of the hackers.
According to data by Etherscan, these bad actors drained $751,321, or 81 worth of USDC from one wallet within 30 minutes after the malicious link was tweeted representing the biggest haul of the heist. The attackers also made away with over 3.9 ETH, 11 NFTs, and $6,742.62 in USDC from other crypto wallets.
Emily Rose, Azuki’s community manager, was the first native authority to confirm the project’s Twitter profile had been hacked. Via a tweet, Emily issued a warning advising users not to click on any link posted by the account.
Azuki Involved Yet In Another Social Media Attack
In the hours following the cyber attack, Azuki has been able to reclaim control of its Twitter account, pulling down the malicious tweets. The management team of the anime-based NFT project also released a statement saying an investigation was already underway while advising its followers to check that any future announcements were posted simultaneously on Azuki’s several media channels to ascertain their validity.
Interestingly, this will not be the first time the Azuki NFT project was the main character in a social media crypto scandal. Early last year, hackers hijacked several verified Twitter accounts, using them to promote the airdrop of fake Azuki NFTs. Most notable among these accounts was that of the India University Grant Commission, which was promptly retrieved following the breach.
Crypto Market Records Another Cyber Attack For 2023
The news of Azuki’s cyber attack comes two days after the Twitter profile of prominent trading platform Robinhood was also compromised and used to push the sale of a fake crypto token – RBH.
Although the team at Robinhood immediately recovered the account within minutes and deleted the false promotional tweet, the hackers could still steal over $8,000 from naive investors who had fallen for the scam.
While the losses incurred in the Robinhood attack pale in comparison to that of Azuki, both incidents represent the only major cyber attacks on the crypto market in 2023.
So far, the crypto market is still maintaining its bullish trend for the year, with numerous assets showing a positive price pattern over the last seven days. According to the data from Tradingview.com, the entire market is trading with a market cap of $1.002 trillion, representing about a 25.78% gain since the start of 2023.
Crypto Market Cap at $1.002T | Source: TOTAL chart on Tradingview.com