🌎 Holograph Hack: $14 Million Crypto Theft Leads to Multiple Arrests

Holograph Hack: Arrests Made in $14 Million Crypto Theft

Authorities in Italy and France have made multiple arrests in connection with a $14 million attack on the crypto protocol Holograph. The omnichain tokenization platform reported on August 14 that law enforcement in France and Italy detained individuals suspected of stealing 1 billion of its native tokens, valued at approximately 13 million euros (about $14.4 million).

Details of the Investigation

The investigation, led by the Office for the Prevention of Cybercrime and the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme in France, received assistance from Europol, Italy’s Directorate of Anti-Mafia Investigations, and the Cayman Islands police. The suspects, described as Eastern Europeans in their 30s, were arrested in Italy and are awaiting extradition to France. Authorities have seized electronics and frozen funds belonging to the suspects.

The Attack and Its Aftermath

The hack occurred on June 13, when attackers exploited Holograph’s operator contract to mint a billion HLG tokens using a proxy wallet. Following the incident, HLG lost over 80% of its value, dropping to a low of $0.0029. Since the attack, the token has mostly traded below $0.003, with a brief spike to $0.049 on July 2, coinciding with the release of a post-mortem report on the attack.

The Holograph Operator contract was exploited by a malicious actor, enabling the hacker to mint 1 billion additional HLG tokens. The team has patched the initial exploit and is working with exchange partners to lock the malicious accounts.

Current Status of HLG Token

At the time of writing, HLG is priced at $0.00231, showing a 28% increase over the past 24 hours and a nearly 60% increase over the past week.

Findings from the Post-Mortem Report

The post-mortem report identified a “disgruntled former contractor” as responsible for the exploit. This individual allegedly used their administrator access to insert malicious jobs into the platform’s smart contract, which they executed on June 13. Additionally, data from Etherscan revealed that the attacker converted the stolen funds into Tether (USDT) shortly after the exploit.