The X account of DeFi protocol EigenLayer was compromised earlier today, October 18, to promote a fraudulent airdrop campaign. The attackers posted a message that appeared to be a follow-up to a legitimate campaign but instead directed users to a harmful website disguised as an airdrop claim portal.
The malicious post read:
“We’re happy to announce that eligible participants for Season 2 have been reallocated EIGEN tokens! Now that we are transitioning into Programmatic incentives, the remaining EIGEN supply for Season 2 has been redistributed. Get started.”
Although the post was quickly deleted, suggesting the attackers temporarily lost access to the account, more malicious links were posted afterward. One of these links mimicked EigenLayer’s official blog, adding to the confusion.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT immediately alerted the community via Telegram, warning users not to click on any links from the compromised account.
EigenLayer is currently the second-largest protocol on Ethereum, with over $11.1 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama. Given its prominence, many users may have clicked on the malicious links before the warnings were issued.
This breach marks the second major attack on EigenLayer in October. Earlier, on October 4, the protocol suffered a $5.7 million hack, in which a compromised email thread led to the unauthorized sale of 1.6 million EIGEN tokens.
Despite these incidents, EigenLayer’s team has reassured the community that the protocol’s core functionality and token contracts remain secure. They stated clarified that the earlier hack was isolated and did not affect the protocol’s core functionality or token contracts.
Meanwhile, these security challenges come on the heels of a $100 million investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) earlier this year. This substantial investment aims to fuel EigenLayer’s growth and development, solidifying its position as a leading protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem.
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