Gala Games Hacker Returns $23M in ETH; Founder Proposes ‘Buy and Burn’

Gala Games has received nearly $23 million worth of ETH tokens from the hacker who on Monday minted and then sold hundreds of millions worth of its native (GALA) token, according to on-chain records and statements in Gala’s Discord server.
The change of fortunes leaves Gala with an unexpected $23 million windfall in ETH tokens. “We will probably buy and burn on galaswap,” said the project’s CEO Eric Schiermeyer, also known as Benefactor, in its Discord server. That means using the ETH to buy GALA tokens and then taking those tokens out of circulation.
Gala Games is a blockchain gaming platform with a variety of video games where players hold NFTs and other crypto assets. The GALA token is the platform’s currency for buying and selling in-game assets.
The move comes one day after an unidentified hacker exploited Gala’s internal controls to mint 5 billion new GALA tokens. The individual then sold 600 million of those tokens on decentralized exchanges and netted nearly 6,000 ETH tokens. On Tuesday the wallet associated with the hack transferred all of its ETH to a wallet controlled by Gala Games.
“We believe we have identified the culprit and we are currently working with the FBI, DOJ and a network of international authorities,” Schiermeyer said Monday.
The exploit caused GALA’s price to drop as much as 19% on Monday as traders fretted over the implications of the increased circulating supply and the hackers’ selling pressure.
Earlier Tuesday, Gala investor DWF Labs said it had purchased 28 million GALA tokens “to alleviate market selling pressures.”
GALA was trading around $0.043 at press time, still off of yesterday’s pre-hack heights.
CORRECTION (March 21, 3:07 UTC): Corrects GALA trading price.
Edited by Aoyon Ashraf.
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Danny is CoinDesk’s Managing Editor for Data & Tokens. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL.
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