Gitcoin hacks transfer, sends $460K to non-existent address
Crypto developer platform Gitcoin has admitted to losing approximately $460,000 worth of Gitcoin (GTC) tokens after it mistakenly sent funds to a non-existent contract address.
On October 6, the project lead, Coach Jonathan, posted the details of the event on the Gitcoin management forum. He said that the GTC was forwarded from the treasury for the budget proposal for merchandise, MEM and marketing.
However, instead of going to a multi-signature address, it went to the GTC token contract.
“This has left him stuck in the contract with no way to get the money back,” he said.
A total of 521,440 GTC tokens were lost in the snafu. At the time, the coin was trading below $0.90 and the dollar loss was estimated at $461,000.
Following the transfer, the Gitcoin core developers were contacted to investigate whether the contract had a withdrawal function or could be modified. It has been confirmed that both options are not available, so it is suggested that the money is lost.
In light of the incident, the team has put in place a plan to ensure that such a mistake does not happen again and to create more transparent accountability if another problem occurs.
“Large token holders and multisig signers have a responsibility to be more diligent when handling funds that are not theirs (including me),” concluded Coach Jonathan.
Gitcoin researcher Umar Khan commented on the forum that the DAO could consider the lost tokens to reduce the supply of GTC instead of losing treasury funds.
“If this is possible, crypto UX is sadly broken,” observers said.
Looks like @gitcoin mistakenly sent ~521k $GTC (~$471k) to a token address instead of funding the workflow address.
It's sad to see. Effectively burning half a million dollars
How come not a single voter/signer noticed? If this can happen, Crypto UX is unfortunately broken pic.twitter.com/DhI7lPaViY
– Lefteris Karapetsas Hiring for @rotkiapp (@LefterisJP) October 7, 2023
Related: Crypto.com Transfers $10.5M to Customer Instead of $100 Refund
Gitcoin is a funding platform for Web3 developers looking for open source work. Project owners and developers can publish their projects, while donors can browse the list of projects and choose the ones they want to fund.
The price of GTC has decreased by 1.1% in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.889 at the time of writing. Additionally, the token has fallen 99 percent since its May 2021 all-time high of $89.62, according to CoinGecko.
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