Munchables to revamp developer hiring and contract audits following a close $63m theft

Days after losing and recovering roughly $62.5 million from a rogue in-house developer, nonfungible token (NFT) game Munchables has announced an approach to avoid repeating the event.

On March 26, an Ethereum-based NFT game called Munchables was plundered of almost 17,400 Ether by a hacker who was later recognized as a developer. The situation calmed down shortly when the developer agreed to refund the stolen funds without demanding a ransom.

While Munchables narrowly avoided a massive loss, the developer has revealed that it is now implementing a number of modifications to “upgrade the security of the project’s funds and smart contracts.”

We’re on the final steps with the lockdrop refunds.

As part of our next phase, we have restructured the team completely.

We have brought in established and trusted entities to help upgrade the security of the project’s funds and smart contracts.

— Munchables (@_munchables_) April 1, 2024

One of the methods is to add investment company Manifold Trading, market maker Selini Capital, and blockchain investigator ZachXBT as new multisig signers to assure the safe return of users’ assets.

Munchables said that developers from Manifold Trading and Selini Capital will re-audit and upgrade to new contracts, as well as monitor Munchables’ future dev hiring process.

Nethermind, an Ethereum infrastructure firm, plans to thoroughly audit the revised contracts before Munchables goes live again.

After the game’s relaunch, returning players will be eligible for higher awards. The platform has also promised to provide financial assistance to those involved in the recovery effort.

“Finally, we will send ETH and future MUNCH donations to those who were involved in the recovery process of keeping our users safe.”

Munchables team

The company also urged users against contacting websites to request a refund, since refunds will be sent directly to their wallets.

PeckShield, a blockchain security service, reported that approximately $100 million in digital assets were stolen in March.

Over 30 hacking instances occurred in the cryptocurrency ecosystem this month alone, resulting in a loss of $187 million. On the positive side, 52.8% of the compromised funds were recovered.

The Munchables issue ranks among the top five security events in terms of lost value. The Curio hack, the Prisma Finance incident, the NFPrompt hack, and the WOOFi attack all made the list.

Despite the decrease in losses from February, March’s results still topped those of January, when the market suffered $182.5 million in losses, according to PeckShield.