GAIN Token maliciously increased by 5 billion, is exchange Alpha reduced to a "high-risk casino"?

The Griffin AI project token GAIN faced a devastating blow just one day after its listing on the Alpha platform, as hackers exploited a cross-chain vulnerability to maliciously mint 5 billion tokens and dump them for a profit of 3.01 million dollars, causing the coin price to crash from 0.1 dollars to 0.004 dollars. This incident not only resulted in heavy losses for investors but also raised serious doubts about the coin listing review mechanisms of exchanges.

Meticulously Planned Cross-Chain Attack: How GAIN Token Lost 90% of Its Value in One Hour

(Source: Trading View)

On September 25, the blockchain network Griffin AI, focused on artificial intelligence agents, encountered a meticulously planned malicious attack. According to the security team GoPlus's analysis, the attacker cleverly exploited a vulnerability in the LayerZero Peer configuration of the GAIN project, initializing a counterfeit Peer (code-named TTTTT) on the Ethereum chain, successfully bypassing the cross-chain verification mechanism, and abnormally issued up to 5 billion GAIN Tokens on the CEX public chain.

The timing of this attack was extremely precise, coinciding with the moment GAIN just landed on the Alpha platform. The token attracted over 90,000 users to participate through a points redemption mechanism for the airdrop, and after its launch, the coin price surged from $0.0819 to $0.2764, with trading volume skyrocketing.

The attacker quickly dumped the tokens after completing the issuance, making a profit of approximately 3.01 million USD, and attempted to cover the flow of funds by transferring them cross-chain to multiple networks such as Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum through deBridge. As of the time of publication, the attacker still holds a large amount of GAIN tokens, and the market risk has not been fully mitigated.

Opportunities in Crisis: Some Earn 530% Return Amidst Bloodshed

On-chain analyst "Ai Yi" discovered that amidst this disaster, there were still people sniffing out profit opportunities. After the attack address paused its dumping, an address starting with 0x951 decisively bottom-fished, buying GAIN Tokens worth 20,200 USD at an average price of 0.00625 USD. Within just one hour, the floating profit from this investment reached 107,000 USD, with a return rate of up to 530%.

This kind of "blood on the blade" investment behavior once again confirms the extreme volatility and high-risk characteristics of the crypto market, and highlights the diversity of market participants—while most people panic and dump, there are always some willing to go against the trend.

Response from the project party and the exchange: Remedial measures that are too late

In response to this crisis, the Griffin AI team quickly reacted, announcing that they have removed the official liquidity pool of GAIN on the CEX public chain to protect the remaining users' assets and warned the community to avoid interacting with unofficial pools created by the attackers. At the same time, the officials clarified that the GAIN Token on Ethereum was unaffected and promised to release more updates in the future.

Large CEXs have adopted relatively conservative measures, stating that "due to the significant fluctuations in the TVL and price of GriffinAI (GAIN) Token, in order to protect user rights," the exchange Alpha has canceled its 4x Alpha trading volume bonus as of September 25 at 8:00 (UTC+8). However, this move is seen by many investors as a drop in the bucket, unable to compensate for the losses already incurred.

As of September 26, the price of GAIN is temporarily reported at $0.02397, rebounding about 400% from the lowest point of $0.004185, but still down about 80% from the pre-event price of $0.1, with a market capitalization of less than $5 million.

Community Reaction: Anger, Doubt, and Trust Crisis

The community's reaction has been equally intense, with many investors expressing strong emotions, claiming to have been harmed by a "scam," and even questioning the quality of the listing review process at the exchange Alpha. An anonymous investor stated on social media: "The Alpha platform has become a paradise for gamblers, completely lacking basic security guarantees."

The GoPlus security team has issued a warning, advising users to temporarily stop any interactions with the project to avoid incurring greater losses. Meanwhile, there are increasing calls for CEX to publicly disclose listing standards and introduce stricter gatekeeping mechanisms to rebuild market trust.

The Dilemma of Alpha Platform: "Gambler's Paradise" or Innovation Sandbox?

This incident has once again sparked discussions about the positioning of the exchange Alpha platform. As an innovative trading zone launched by a large CEX, Alpha aims to provide early exposure and trading opportunities for emerging Tokens. However, during a period of low liquidity and interest rate cuts, Alpha, despite showcasing the potential for traffic amplification and ecological flywheel, has gradually been nicknamed "Gambler's Paradise" due to high control projects and frequent audit loopholes.

Industry analysts point out that the core dilemma faced by the Alpha platform is how to balance innovation and security: overly strict reviews may stifle early development opportunities for innovative projects, while overly lenient standards may lead to frequent security incidents like those of GAIN.

For investors, Alpha seems no longer to be a simple place for harvesting profits, but rather a battlefield that requires a very high level of risk awareness. In this high-risk game, staying vigilant, diversifying investments, and strictly controlling positions are the ways to survive.

Lessons and Outlook: The Security Alarm of Tokens

The GAIN event has sounded the alarm on security for the entire cryptocurrency industry. Cross-chain bridges, as a key infrastructure for blockchain interoperability, directly relate to the security of user assets. Although cross-chain protocols like LayerZero provide convenient asset transfer channels, their configuration vulnerabilities may also become entry points for Hacker attacks.

For project parties, it becomes particularly important to strengthen security audits, improve permission management, and establish multi-signature mechanisms; for exchanges, it is equally urgent to raise listing standards, strengthen technical audits, and establish emergency response mechanisms; and for investors, maintaining rationality, conducting thorough research, and controlling risks remain the unchanging golden rules.

In the high-risk, high-reward field of the cryptocurrency market, security is always the top priority. The GAIN incident reminds us not to forget to protect ourselves from potential risks while chasing high returns.