Unaudited Crypto Gaming Platform, Eminence, Hacked for $15 Million
A beta DeFi project by yEarn Finance's Andre Cronje enabled a $15 million exploit, leveraging hype from a single tweet by the developer.Â
A gaming platform called Eminence saw $15 million deposited into its beta smart contract only to be hacked for the full amount a few hours later. Â
Affected users are now calling for a full refund despite the clear warning signs.
Game Over for EminenceÂ
Eminence is a gaming multiverse that brings online game developers, contributors, and players to a single platform.
It all started with a single tweet from Andre Cronje, the founder of yEarn Finance, revealing details of his new DeFi endeavor – Eminence.Â
Naturally, the new project came with a governance token called “EMN.” The rush to farm EMN tokens quickly saw $15 million deposited into the contracts within just a few hours after a single tweet from Cronje. Â
— eminence.finance (@eminencefi) September 28, 2020
Cronje deployed the beta smart contract along with “art teasers to showcase all the different clans in the game on Twitter,” he said in a tweet.Â
DeFi degens couldn’t resist the urge to buy early into Cronje’s new DeFi project, which was neither completed nor audited.Â
Just aped into $EMN
— Zach Rynes | CLG (@ChainLinkGod) September 29, 2020
Hackers used the deployed contracts to mint EMN. The value of EMN was built by a simple exploit where the newly minted EMN was burnt and re-bought for other cryptocurrencies. Â
The attackers then deposited $8 million to Cronje’s deployer account on yEarn Finance, creating a ruse that Cronje might have been the one who exploited the opportunity. He denies any involvement, stating he was asleep when it happened.Â
https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech/status/1310763509521805312
Cronje has called upon the yEarn treasury to help refund the entire $8 million. The treasury is managed by a group of nine people who own the keys to the multi-sig wallet. Â
For DeFi fanatics, the events have been yet another wake-up call to perform due diligence before investing in a project.Â