GAIN has been maliciously diluted to nearly zero, is Binance Alpha really becoming a "gamblers' paradise"?

Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher

On the morning of September 25, the on-chain network Griffin AI project token GAIN, focused on artificial intelligence agents, experienced a sudden flash crash, plummeting over 90% in just one hour, from $0.1 to only $0.004185, significantly shrinking its market capitalization.

This dramatic turn of events occurred just as GAIN had launched on the Binance Alpha platform the day before, attracting over 90,000 users with its airdrop mechanism that involved earning points. After its launch, the token price surged from $0.0819 to a high of $0.2764, with trading volume skyrocketing.

The driving force behind this crash was a meticulously planned malicious attack. According to analysis by the GoPlus security team, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the LayerZero Peer configuration of the GAIN project, initializing a counterfeit Peer (codenamed TTTTT) on the Ethereum chain, bypassing cross-chain verification, and anomalously minting 5 billion GAIN on the BNB chain.

Subsequently, the attacking address quickly sold off to profit approximately $3.01 million and transferred the funds across chains to networks such as Solana, Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum via deBridge. Currently, the attacker still holds a large amount of tokens, and the situation remains unclear.

As of the time of writing, according to Binance data, the GAIN price is still around $0.02, rebounding about 400% from its lowest point, but still down over 70% from the pre-incident price of $0.1. The current market capitalization is less than $5 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $104 million and 4,163 on-chain holders.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi lamented that the crypto space is never short of players who walk on the edge: after the attacking address halted its sell-off, an address starting with 0x951 decisively bottom-fished, purchasing $20,200 worth of GAIN at an average price of $0.00625, realizing a floating profit of $107,000 within an hour, with a return rate of 530%, and currently showing no signs of selling.

The community reaction has also been intense, with many investors expressing their emotions, claiming they were harmed by a "scam," and even questioning the listing review quality of Binance Alpha. The GoPlus security team issued a warning, advising users to temporarily cease interactions with the project to avoid further losses.

The project team Griffin AI responded by announcing the removal of the official liquidity pool for GAIN on the BNB chain to protect user assets and warned against interacting with unofficial pools created by the attacker, which pose high risks. Meanwhile, the official clarified that GAIN on Ethereum was unaffected and promised to release further updates.

Binance stated that due to the significant fluctuations in TVL and price of GriffinAI (GAIN) tokens, in order to protect user rights, Binance Alpha canceled its 4x Alpha trading volume bonus on September 25 at 8:00 AM (UTC+8). Although this measure did not completely quell the controversy, it showed that the platform has begun to intervene.

Once again, this hacker attack and crash incident undoubtedly sounded the alarm for token security, with many voices calling for Binance to publicly disclose its listing standards and introduce stricter oversight mechanisms to rebuild market trust. Essentially, while Alpha has demonstrated the potential for traffic amplification and ecological flywheel during a low liquidity interest rate cycle, it has gradually been dubbed a "gamblers' paradise" due to high control projects and frequent review loopholes. For investors, Alpha no longer seems to be a treasure trove for profit; in this high-risk game, survival is the key.

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