Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer assured the community that its protocol has no vulnerabilities after an incident where almost $6 million in tokens were stolen from an investor. 

On Oct. 4, the EigenLayer team said it was investigating an “unapproved selling activity” concerning a wallet ending in “f10D.” The wallet address sold about 1.6 million of EigenLayer’s EIGEN tokens, worth about $5.7 million. 

Etherscan quickly marked the address as under investigation following EigenLayer’s announcement. 

Token selling due to an isolated hack

On Oct. 5, EigenLayer posted a community update saying that the unapproved token-selling incident was due to a hack. The EigenLayer team said a malicious attacker compromised an email thread involving an investor’s token transfer into custody. 

Because of the attack, the investor’s 1.6 million tokens were transferred to the attacker. EigenLayer wrote: 

“The attacker sold these stolen EIGEN tokens via a decentralized swap platform and transferred stablecoins to centralized exchanges.”

Meanwhile, the protocol said they have already communicated with the platforms and authorities. “We are in contact with these platforms and law enforcement. A portion of the funds have already been frozen,” EigenLayer added.  

While the tokens were stolen through a hack, the EigenLayer team assured the community that the incident was isolated and did not affect its broader ecosystem. The team said that the compromise was not related to any onchain functionality. EigenLayer said there is no known vulnerability in the protocol or token contracts. 

EigenLayer also said in the community update that it would continue its investigation and post an update once they have more information. 

EIGEN cracks top 100 market rank

On Oct. 1, the EIGEN token was unlocked. After the token was unlocked, it traded at $3.85 on Binance, putting its fully diluted valuation (FDV) at about $6.5 billion. According to data aggregator CoinMarketCap, the valuation placed the token at the 94th spot by market capitalization. 

On Oct. 5, the coin information website shows that EIGEN trades at around $3.38. This places its FDV at $5.6 billion, putting it at the 99th place in the overall crypto market capitalization rankings. 
Magazine: Ethereum restaking: Blockchain innovation or dangerous house of cards?