According to Cointelegraph, crypto developer platform Gitcoin has lost approximately $460,000 worth of Gitcoin (GTC) tokens after accidentally sending the funds to an unrecoverable contract address. On October 6, project lead 'CoachJonathan' posted details of the incident on the Gitcoin governance forum, stating that the transfer of GTC from the treasury was intended for a merchandise, memes, and marketing budget proposal. However, the funds were mistakenly sent to a GTC token contract instead of a multisignature address, rendering them stuck and irrecoverable.

A total of 521,440 GTC tokens were lost in the error, with the coin trading at just below $0.90 at the time, resulting in an estimated dollar loss of $461,000. Gitcoin core developers were contacted to explore whether the contract had a withdraw function or was upgradeable, but neither option was available, so the funds have been flagged as lost. In response to the incident, the team has shared plans to prevent such errors in the future and establish clearer accountability for any similar incidents.

Gitcoin researcher Umar Khan suggested on the forum that the DAO could consider the lost tokens a reduction in GTC supply rather than a loss of treasury funds. The price of GTC has fallen 1.1% over the past 24 hours and was trading at $0.889 at the time of writing. The token is down 99% since its May 2021 all-time high of $89.62, according to CoinGecko.