Animoca Brands has issued a public notice regarding co-founder Yat Siu’s social media account being compromised.
The official statement makes it clear that the recent statements regarding the launch of a token or NFT on the Solana blockchain, which was attributed to Animoca Brands, were the result of malicious activity by the hacker.
The Hong Kong-based gaming software company said that, for now, there is no official token or NFT launch associated with Animoca Brands and urged users not to engage with the compromised account. Animoca Brands promised more updates once the account is restored.
Yat Siu and David Kim founded Brands Animoca Corporation in 2014. The company originally focused on the development of mobile games, but changed its focus in 2018 to blockchain games and non-fungible tokens, becoming a key player in the Web3 space.
Vulnerability on the Solana blockchain
This is not the first time Solana blockchain has been the victim of a scam. Solana’s infrastructure makes users prone to specific vulnerabilities. A recent one case brought by the Department of Justice of the United States shed light on this issue, with the Department of Justice charged two men from California, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, with the execution of carpet NFT pulls in Ethereum and Solana that they cost buyers more than $22 million. Such pull pulls included fake NFT projects like Vault of Gems and Faceless and absconding with investors’ money. The case is the largest NFT fraud the DOJ has prosecuted. In addition, Drakethe Canadian singer, also had his account compromised to promote the meme coin based on Solana Anita.
Because Solana is vulnerable to scams?
While Solana’s architecture may have been designed for efficiency, it introduces a number of risks that make it more susceptible to scams compared to other networks. The token account structure that Solana uses allows attackers to reassign asset ownership with the right command left, leaving funds practically unrecoverable.
Additionally, Solana’s one-step transaction approval – versus Ethereum’s multi-phase allowance of contract functions – can result in instant and irreversible losses once a malicious transaction is authorized. The ability of the platform to group several sub-transactions in a single approval also compounds the risk of invisible thefts.
Scammers also take advantage of Solana Durable Nonce ability to postpone the implementation of fraudulent operations, evade alerts and surprise victims. This, along with the user’s ignorance of Solana’s unique operational dangers, makes it a prime target for scams.
