Quick Take:
- The Monkey Kingdom said it is launching a compensation fund after losing $1.3 million to hackers.
- According to developers, the breach first occurred on Grape, the popular solution used to verify users on Solana.
- The hackers then used an administrative account to take over the project’s Discord channel.
Hong Kong-based non-fungible token project, the Monkey Kingdom, announced on Wednesday the launch of a compensation fund after losing $1.3 million to hackers. According to developers, the hackers breached the popular user authentication solution, Grape, used to verify users on Solana.
The hackers then proceeded to invade Monkey Kingdon’s announcement channel on Discord after taking over an administrator account. They then posted a phishing link luring unsuspecting users to open the link. Those who followed the link expecting to receive NFTs instead lost their SOL tokens to the hacker.
The NFT project has gained popularity recently after receiving backing from American DJ Steve Aoki. The DJ will headline a Christmas party hosted by Monkey Kingdom NFTs. The virtual party is open to the public and will take place on a metaverse stage built by Cryptovoxels.
The event is a celebration of Monkey Kingdom’s success after selling out all NFTs on offer within two minutes after the launch in November.
The hacker timed the malicious activity perfectly, as users were preparing for Monkey Kingdom’s second NFT drop. The 2,222 NFTs consist of randomly generated Sun Wukong apes, or “The Monkey King” in Chinese mythology, with different rarity traits.
Proceeds from the initial NFT sales were intended to support Asian communities globally through a charity of choice.
An aggrieved Twitter user posted claiming to have lost 650 SOL, an equivalent of $120,400 during the breach after following the phishing link.
The Monkey Kingdom was quick to issue a calming statement, which announced the launch of the $1.3 million compensation fund, or 7,056.32 SOL.
Monkey Kingdom’s hack comes following another major hack, which saw the NFT gaming platform Vulcan Forged refund $140 million to users after a major breach. The platform said 148 wallets holding its native token PYR had been compromised in the hack.
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