Crypto: Bittensor's TAO Collapses by 15% After a Massive Attack

The Bittensor blockchain suffered a major attack, causing a sharp 15% drop in its native crypto, TAO. The incident, which drained $8 million from a user wallet, forced developers to temporarily suspend the network as a precautionary measure.

TAO collapses following a spectacular $8 million theft

The attack on Bittensor, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, targeted multiple user wallets.

The biggest impact was on a single wallet, emptied of 32,000 TAO, or around $8 million at the time of the hack. This security breach instantly triggered a shockwave in the market, causing the TAO price to plummet from $281 to $237 within a few hours.

Ala Shaabana, co-founder of the Bittensor blockchain, promptly responded by announcing on X (formerly Twitter) that the blockchain was put into “safe mode”. This emergency measure allowed for block production to continue while freezing transactions, thus limiting the extent of the damage.

On-chain analysts, including ZachXBT, suspect a private key compromise as the primary attack vector.

Bittensor retaliates and reassures its community

In the face of this crisis, the Bittensor team acted swiftly and transparently. A principal member stated on Discord: “We are investigating and, as a precaution, have entirely suspended on-chain transactions until we obtain more information on the nature of this attack.”

On-chain data confirms the halt of operations around 23:00 UTC on July 2. Despite this setback, Bittensor maintains a strong position in the AI crypto ecosystem, with a market cap of $1.6 billion.

In summary, its innovative technology, which interconnects global machine learning models, continues to attract the interest of investors and experts in the crypto sector.