Munchables Exploited for $62M Ether, Linked to Rogue North Korean Team Member

Web3 project Munchables was drained of an estimated $62.5 million worth of ether (ETH) early Wednesday after a contract was maliciously manipulated, blockchain data shows.

Munchables said on X that it was tracking movements and attempting to stop the transactions. The project, which is based on the relatively new Blast blockchain, lets users buy and develop traits for digital pets in return for tokenized rewards.

The attacker apparently transferred themselves the stored users’ funds before upgrading the platform’s smart contracts.

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said the attacker likely originated from North Korea, based on their GitHub commit activity. They are listed on GitHub as “Werewolves0493” and allegedly worked for the Munchables team.

North Korean hacking groups have stolen an estimated $3 billion worth of various tokens since 2017, as per a UN Security Council report earlier this month.

Meanwhile, several crypto developers and traders called for a chain rollback to help recover the funds.

A blockchain rollback, also known as a blockchain reorg (short for reorganization), reverses a series of confirmed transactions. This is typically done to undo the effects of a hack or other malicious activity that resulted in the theft of funds or other assets.