In yet another Ethereum hack, Veritaseum has confirmed that a hacker stole $8.4 million from its ICO (Initial Coin Offering) this Sunday, July 23. This is the fourth Ethereum hack this month and second attack on an ICO.
An ICO is very similar to an IPO (Initial Public Offering), enabling users to quickly raise millions of dollars without having to go through the official loops. Instead of stocks in a company, buyers get to own tokens in an online platform. While a quick way to raise money for any platform, Ethereum ICOs are turning into hotbeds for hackers trying to make quick money, too.
Following a $7.4 million Ethereum hack (or theft) during CoinDash ICO last week, Veritaseum is the latest to suffer. “We were hacked, possibly by a group,” Veritaseum’s founder Reggie Middleton confirmed today. The company was holding its ICO over the weekend, offering VERI tokens to its buyers for a future product that Veritaseum is preparing to launch.
Hacker (s) stole and resold tokens for Ethereum
“The hack seemed to be very sophisticated, but there is at least one corporate partner that may have dropped the ball and be liable,” Middleton adds. “We’ll let the lawyers sort that out, if it goes that far.”
Middleton wrote that since the VERI tokens were high in demand during the ICO, the hacker first managed to steal these tokens and then immediately sold them to other buyers for the cryptocurrency.
“The amount stolen was miniscule (less than 00.07%) although the dollar amount was quite material.”
Middleton has called the latest Ethereum hack “inconsequential.” According to his estimates, the hackers made $8.4 million worth of Ethereum during the ICO. First dumped in two wallets, the money was then moved to other accounts. Reports suggest that the token theft doesn’t affect ICO investors as the stolen funds belonged to the team members. However, no more details are available at the moment.
Ethereum seems to be receiving a lot of hacker attention. Today’s report by Veritaseum makes it the fourth known Ethereum hack this month, following another ICO hack last week, a $32 million hack affecting multi-sig Parity wallets, and a Classic Ether Wallet incident earlier this month.
Read More: $8.4 Million Stolen in the Latest ICO