Nearly $100 Million in PYR Stolen From Vulcan Forged NFT Marketplace

An attacker has stolen nearly $100 million in PYR tokens from NFT marketplace Vulcan Forged, it announced on Twitter. The team will replace the stolen funds and has begun an investigation.

Vulcan Forged, an NFT marketplace, announced on Dec 13 that 148 wallets holding its PYR token have been compromised. The attacker has stolen over 4.5 million PYR tokens, worth just under $100 million.

PYR prices tank

The team is working on replacing the PYR tokens that have been stolen, but the investigation has only just begun. The PYR token has crashed by over 10% since the announcement of the theft and continues to bleed.

The PYR tokens will be replaced through funds in the treasury. Additionally, it’s focusing on moving to a completely decentralized wallet setup, though the specifics of this weren’t discussed.

The team has provided the details of the wallet used in the attack and has also contacted exchanges to blacklist the address. The owner may have even provided KYC details of the wallet on the exchange. If this is true, it should make short work of the investigation.

Vulcan Forged is an NFT ecosystem that offers a DEX, a dashboard to manage assets, a marketplace, and the ability to mint NFTs. It is primarily focused on the blockchain gaming ecosystem, which has grown in popularity this year. The play-to-earn model has come to the fore with the success of games like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox.

Attacks remain a concern for the DeFi and NFT market

Thefts in the crypto space persist and continue to plague teams and investors. 2021 has seen a tremendous number of attacks take place. CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency intelligence firm, released a report stating that DeFi related crimes hit an all-time high in the first seven months of 2021.

The total funds lost during that period totaled approximately $474 million, noting that attacks focusing on the DeFi market were unsurprisingly expanding as the niche was growing. One of the most recent attacks, which occurred in early December 2021, was that of BitMart, which had $196 million stolen.

Flash loans are one of the most commonly used exploits by attackers, and such attacks have been common this year. Cream Finance alone suffered its third flash loan attack this year, losing $130 million the third time around.