In a recent X post, web3 marketer @Hercules_Defi revealed that decentralized machine learning protocol, Bittensor’s token TAO experienced a $8 million hack on July 3. As a result, all transactions on the Bittensor chain have been paused for 24 hours.
According to the updates, an attack on the Bittensor network resulted in the theft of 32,000 TAO tokens, valued at approximately $8 million. While initial reports suggested user wallets were compromised, the incident primarily affected the chain’s validators and subnets.
Co-founder Ala Shaabana clarified on X that the network was placed in “safe mode.” This meant the production of blocks continued, but no transactions were being processed. According to blockchain trackers for the Bittensor network, the last confirmed transactions and blocks occurred around 23:00 UTC on Tuesday.
Concurrently, independent security researcher ZachXBT, on his Telegram channel, reported that a single user lost the entire 32,000 TAO. He speculated that a private key leak might be responsible for the attack.
As the investigation continues, TAO experienced a major price drop, with values falling by up to 15%. At the time of writing the coin is trading at $234.86 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $71,251,926, as per CoinMarketCap.
Amidst this theft. Hercules expressed broader concerns about the Bittensor situation. Highlighting the fact that validators or users don’t have access to $TAO as a blow to decentralization, Hercules compared it to past criticisms of Solana for frequent network shutdowns.
