Vulcan Forged Play-to-Earn Gaming Platform Refunds Users After $140M Hack

PYR token prices fell 34% to $21 on Monday following news of the hack.

AccessTimeIconDec 14, 2021 at 7:21 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 7:12 p.m. UTC

Play-to-earn NFT platform Vulcan Forged said on Tuesday it has refunded $140 million worth of PYR tokens to nearly all investors a day after the platform was hacked.

  • The platform, which is built on the Polygon network, offers over six blockchain games, a decentralized exchange, as well as a non-fungible token marketplace.
  • “All My Forge wallets have been secured. Only a few needing PYR back,” the developers in a tweet. They said that a buyback and token burn – mechanisms that see projects purchase tokens on the open market and send tokens to a “burn” address respectively – will be conducted in the following days.
  • All refunds were made from Vulcan Forged’s treasury, a fund that crypto projects use to save money for crises. Refunds were made in PYR and LAVA tokens, starting late Monday night and continuing until Tuesday morning.
  • PYR tokens fell 34% to $21 on Monday following news of the hack. PYR recovered slightly to $24 during European hours on Monday and retreated to $21.15 at press time.
  • Hackers stole 4.5 million PYR – nearly 9% of the token’s total supply – worth $140 million at the time, alongside relatively smaller amounts of ether (ETH) and polygon (MATIC).
  • The hackers got hold of over 96 private keys belonging to some of the biggest Vulcan Forged users. Private keys are digital signatures that prove ownership of an underlying address, allowing only their holders to move funds from those addresses.

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Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.


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