Fantom Foundation Acknowledges $550K Loss in Larger $7M Crypto Attack

By: Isha Das

The Fantom Foundation reported that they, along with their team, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a crypto attack on Oct. 17. The Foundation’s official account released a statement acknowledging the compromise of a number of Fantom wallets, resulting in a loss of approximately $550K from the Foundation's funds. However, the Foundation reassured that a "significant majority" of its funds, more than 99% of its holdings, were unaffected by the attack.

An investigation is ongoing into the source of the hack, which targeted an employee’s wallet, initially misattributed as belonging to the Foundation. Possible suggestions include a possible vulnerability through Google Chrome. Crypto commentator Spreek drew attention to this allegation in a tweet, highlighting a message by an admin on Fantom's Telegram channel regarding a potential Google Chrome breach.

Beyond the Foundation’s loss, the total amount stolen could be near $6.7 million. This figure comes from Spreek's Twitter post, pointing out that one of the attacker's wallets at one point held that amount, though it remains unclear if all of these funds were directly tied to the attack. An Ethereum address that started receiving funds around the attack time and accumulated a balance of $7.0 million has now been linked to the hack, according to reports by blockchain security platform, CertiK.