Gala Games exploited for $200 million Gala Games exploited for $200 million
Over 5 billion GALA tokens were minted during the hack or insider theft.
1 min read
Updated: May. 22, 2024 at 12:15 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
An unknown attacker exploited the blockchain gaming project Gala Games on May 20 for approximately $200 million, according to reports.
Solidity developer 0xquit said the attacker minted 5 billion GALA tokens through an admin address, noting that an external hacker or rogue address owner could be responsible.
0xquit stated that the attacker can mint 12 billion more tokens before reaching a cap. However, the exploited address is blocklisted, meaning that the attacker must gain access to another admin address before stealing or minting more tokens.
The relevant transaction is reflected on Etherscan. Gala Games has not yet commented.
Price down
Molly White of Web3 Is Going Great argued that the actual value of the attack is lower, as the attacker only swapped $21 million worth of GALA tokens to ETH before the address was frozen.
White added that the attacker cannot sell the tokens without severely impacting the price.
The latest incident has corresponded with rapid losses for the GALA token. The price fell from $0.048 to $0.038 in less than two hours, marking a drop of more than 20%.
However, GALA’s price has since partially recovered to $0.043 as of 12:04 am UTC.
Past incidents
Gala Games was previously exploited in a November 2021 incident that resulted in a loss of $130 million. Later, in 2023, the company founders entered a legal dispute as co-founder Eric Schiermeyer alleged that fellow co-founder Wright Thurston carried out the theft.
Gala Games also experienced a $1 billion exploit in November 2023, carried out by white hat hackers. Although the funds remained safe at the time, the incident caused concern and impacted GALA prices.
The GALA token remains among the 70 largest crypto tokens by market cap, with a supply worth $1.56 billion, despite its numerous controversies.
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Author 
Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
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Gala
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GALA claims to be designed to power the Gala Games ecosystem to support gaming re-imagined to benefit creators and players, alike.