PlayDapp, a renowned South Korean Web3 game developer and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, announced an emergency halt to its smart contract operations. The suspension, which occurred just before 11:00 am UTC on February 13, was initiated to facilitate a crucial screenshot for migration purposes as the platform grapples with an ongoing hack that first came to light on February 9.
Blockchain security experts at PeckShield were the first to detect an apparent private key leak at PlayDapp, leading to the unauthorized minting of 200 million of its native PLA tokens, valued at $31 million at the time. Cyvers Alerts, another blockchain security firm, provided further insights, stating, “It seems that the deployer’s address has been compromised, and the attacker’s address is added as a minter.”
In a bid to recover the stolen assets, PlayDapp made a public appeal to the hacker on February 10 via X (formerly Twitter), offering a $1 million reward for the return of the stolen contracts and assets. The company also threatened to involve law enforcement agencies, including the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, if their appeal went unanswered. During this tumultuous period, PlayDapp’s customer service was reportedly offline from February 9 to 12.
Despite these challenges, the hack escalated, with Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, reporting an additional minting of 1.59 billion PLA tokens, worth $253.9 million, on February 12. This substantial increase in token supply, from an original count of 577 million PLA tokens, complicates the hackers’ ability to liquidate their ill-gotten gains.
The value of PLA experienced a notable decline in the wake of the hack, dropping from $0.1823 to $0.1482, with a 24-hour trading volume peaking at $60.17 million. This figure represents a recovery from an earlier low of $0.1420, as per CoinMarketCap data.
In response to the hack, PlayDapp has been actively collaborating with blockchain analytics, security firms, centralized exchanges, and law enforcement agencies to mitigate the damage. The platform, which launched the Along with the Gods play-to-earn game on the Polygon blockchain in 2021, had previously shut down the game service in May 2023 due to sustainability issues, although NFTs from the game remain available on the PlayDapp website.
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