- Blockchain security experts at Cyvers Alerts uncovered a suspicious on-chain transaction on the Truebit protocol on Thursday.
- A single address received 8,535 ETH, marked as a “Truebit Protocol Purchase” – estimated damage: around $26 million.
The crypto market is experiencing the first shock of the new year: The Truebit protocol has lost more than 8,500 ETH, the equivalent of around $26 million, due to a serious exploit. Truebit is a blockchain scaling protocol which outsources complex calculations to reduce costs and increase performance by executing tasks offchain.
The first clues came from the Blockchain‑Analysefirma Cyvers Alertswhich noticed an unusual transaction in which a single address received thousands of ETH, marked as “Truebit Protocol: Purchase.”
It quickly became clear that this was not a legitimate operation, but rather a targeted attack on an outdated smart contract that had not been updated in years.
The attackers got the TRU tokens practically for free and then exchanged them for ETH, depleting the project’s reserves in a very short time.
TRU token collapsed after a few hours
The immediate consequences for the TRU token were dramatic. Within a few hours, the token lost almost all of its value. Price data shows a fall of 99.95 percent – effectively a total loss.
Liquidity collapsed on decentralized exchanges while Partially freezing data feeds or displayed incorrect values. For many investors who still view Truebit as an experimental but ambitious project in the area of off-chain computing power, the collapse came as a complete surprise.
The incident joins a series of security issues affecting outdated smart contracts and raises questions about how long unmaintained protocols can “survive” in a blockchain system.
Public prosecutor’s office is investigating
The Truebit team has since confirmed the incident and stated that they had been informed of a hacker attack.
They are working closely with law enforcement to identify those responsible and trace the stolen crypto assets. At the same time, a technical post-mortem is being prepared to reveal the exact cause and sequence of the attack.
For the crypto market, the case is a warning example of how dangerous outdated smart contracts are. The investigation is ongoing, and at this time it is not certain whether Truebit will recover from this blow or whether it has initiated the project’s final demise.
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