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SUPER HUNTERS TURNED MALICIOUS HACKERS – ARBITRUM AIRDROP FRENZY

The highly anticipated Arbitrum’s token airdrop shook up the crypto ecosystem and exceeded expectations. As the popular layer-2 solution saw it’s on-chain activity soar to levels not seen before. Arbitrum is now finally a DAO due to the introduction of the ARB token

 

However, this cash rain saw hunters rake in impressive amount of ARB tokens. As in the first hour alone, over 42 million ARB tokens were claimed. Recent data discovered two “super airdrop hunters” who collectively used 1,496 addresses to acquire about $3.3 million with each receiving 1.4 million ARB, worth around $1.92 million, and 933,375 ARB, worth $1.28 million respectively.

According to blockchain analysis firm Lookonchain, decentralized exchange Uniswap was a huge beneficiary of the airdrop as the account that received 1.4 million ARB added the entire amount to the to exchange and by so doing provided liquidity.

The hype behind the airdrop has opened the way for the bad actors in the crypto space to fetch the tokens.

It was revealed by Alexander Tkachenko, Founder and CEO of Hashscan NFT growth platform, that a hacker claimed the ARB airdrop via compromised vanity addresses, and made over $500k.

It is interesting to note that, all the addresses were created with a tool for the activation of so-called “vanity addresses,” called Profanity, which are custom crypto wallets having identifiable numbers or names within them. The 1inch contributors found out last year that the process used by Profanity to generate the addresses is susceptible to attacks and judged it to be unsafe.

Furthermore, Arkham another crypto intelligence platform discovered a wallet  who in anticipation of the airdrop from more than 2,400 seemingly compromised wallets, sent small amounts of ETH to pay for gas fees and claim the ARB several hours before the airdrop.

 

Featured Image Source: U.Today

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