Original | Odaily Planet Daily(@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser(@wenser 2010)
When it rains, it pours. The crypto market has once again been hit by a major security incident with over $30 million in stolen funds.
In the early hours this morning, on-chain monitoring showed that the Humanity Protocol was hacked, with over 17 wallets holding H tokens compromised, resulting in total losses exceeding $19 million. Subsequently, the scale of the lost funds expanded to over $31 million. After the successful attack, the hacker quickly swapped the H tokens for ETH to facilitate subsequent money laundering.
Terence, the founder of Humanity, later confirmed that the incident was due to the private key of a Humanity Foundation member being leaked and exploited by hackers. Following this news, the price of the H token plummeted below $0.08, with a 24-hour drop of over 90%.
Against the backdrop of a minor rebound in the broader market, the "bear market staple" has played out once again. Is it hackers being unpreventable, or is there more to the story?
When a "Human-Induced Security Incident" Occurs at Humanity: Team Member Private Key Leak OR Project Team's Deliberate Plot?
According to the latest official response from Humanity, project founder Terence confirmed that the private key of a Humanity Foundation member had been leaked. As a precaution, please do not interact with cross-chain bridges or any liquidity pools until safety is confirmed. The Foundation is working with security experts and exchange partners to handle the matter and will provide ongoing updates. Furthermore, the official advises users to temporarily revoke permissions granted to the project's contract addresses until the official investigation results are disclosed.
Meanwhile, the "hack" continues. According to LookonChain monitoring, the Humanity hacker minted an additional 100 million H tokens on BSC, valued at $11.4 million, indicating that the sell-off may continue.
As of the time of writing, the address associated with the Humanity hacker holds over 31.35 million H tokens, valued at approximately $3.82 million; holds about 18,000 ETH, valued at over $30.11 million; its BNB holdings have also increased to 2,443, worth nearly $1.5 million; and it continues to mint more H tokens.
On-chain address monitoring information for the hacker can be found at: https://arkm.com/explorer/entity/dcfac174-1b67-46d6-8cab-5b8e955ca921.
Regarding this major security incident with over $30 million in stolen funds, on-chain detective ZachXBT also offered his preliminary investigation conclusions:
He first posted, "Unclear if hack or team maliciously rugged. Looking at the chart and the concentrated supply, the H team was likely working with an active market maker. However, all H tokens were sold on (on-chain) DEXs, not CEXs."
Subsequently, he gave a preliminary conclusion, stating: "This 'security incident' was likely planned. I don't believe the team's corresponding story at all; it's just an excuse made by ill-intentioned people to get away." It's worth mentioning that the Humanity project team does indeed have a "dark history."
Humanity Team's Dark History: Technical Outsourcing, Airdrop Drama, and Team Scandals
In fact, the crypto community's dissatisfaction with Humanity is not without reason.
Previously, when WorldCoin gained fame as a "human iris identity verification project," Humanity, as a "palm print verification identity security protocol," quickly capitalized on the hot concept and rose to prominence. At that time, it was highly sought after as a partner for KYC or identity verification in numerous crypto project airdrops. However, on the other hand, its background team, its promoted "palm print security verification technology," and its token airdrop process all sparked market controversy. For more details, see "From Palm Print 'Revolution' to Access Control Manufacturer, Tearing Apart Humanity's Two-Faced 'Technological' Charade."
Not only that, in June last year, on-chain investigator Specter pointed out in a post: "After understanding the team composition of Humanity, it's concerning: Among the 4 team leaders, 3 have problematic past records involving mismanagement, lawsuits, or financial irregularities."
Among them, project founder and CEO Terence Kwok has a previous "entrepreneurial history." He founded Tink Labs, which once raised $200 million and reached a peak valuation of $1.5 billion, but ultimately went bankrupt in 2019 due to "mismanagement."
Foundation head Mario Nawfal has previously been accused of withholding wages and is implicated in improper financing, false promises, and coercing whistleblowers into silence. He also has a series of "blemished histories": the project Froothie was fined in Australia for false advertising; sued by Juicero; accused of invoice manipulation during his tenure at NFT Tech; and engaged in controversial behavior with BitClout token trading.
As for Yat Siu, founder of Animoca Brands, one of Humanity's backers, he was previously involved in violations related to blockchain and crypto investments, leading to his company being delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange.
Coupled with Humanity's past incidents being exposed, such as "Shenzhen technical outsourcing," large-scale sybil attacks in token airdrops, and airdrops worth single-digit amounts for loyal users, this theft incident is hard not to be seen as having ulterior motives.
Appearing Hacked, Actually a Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell? Humanity Team Accused of Already Shifting to a New Project
Soon, more information was revealed by the crypto community and on-chain detective ZachXBT.
After suggesting that the Humanity theft might be a planned event, ZachXBT again posted, questioning Humanity's official account: "You chose to hype your token for weeks without any real substance and think the crypto community would blindly believe your story? Please disclose all your active market-making agreements with related entities in Hong Kong first."
Subsequently, he even shared a previous tweet from crypto KOL Irene Zhao, which mentioned: "2 years ago, I made a 100x return on my KOL round investment in H tokens; now, I have also participated in the KOL round financing for Everything, a new project incubated by the Humanity team."
In January this year, Everything, which promotes the concept of an "all-in-one exchange," announced the completion of a $6.9 million seed round. The round was led by Humanity's venture capital arm, Humanity Investments, with participation from Animoca Brands, Hex Trust, WallStreetBets creator Jamie Rogozinski, and Three Point Capital. The platform emphasizes its advantage in integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, prediction markets, and payment functions.
Looking at it now, it's a familiar taste (combining current hotspots), a familiar recipe (similar investor team composition). Often, we have to admire the keen sense and superb execution of these "entrepreneurial veterans." As for the KOLs and investors involved, perhaps all benefits have already been divided behind the scenes, leaving the losses for the token traders on stage.
Of course, in the crypto market, projects and token prices are always two sides of the same coin. As for how the H token price performs subsequently, it may still depend on the handling plan of the Humanity project team and the stage performance of the market makers.
