ZachXBT onboarded as custodian for return of funds in $63M Munchables exploit
Prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT has been onboarded as one of four custodians to a multi-sig wallet holding GameFi protocol Munchables' hacked user funds.
"ZachXBT will be joining as the fourth signer on the multisig at this stage, completing the safe return of user funds," Munchables developers wrote in an April 1 announcement. Other custodians are Manifold Trading, Selini Capital, and Munchables itself. We will also be onboarding Nethermind to audit all our refreshed contracts before going live again," wrote Munchables staff in a statement. All users' assets have been recovered, and refunds will be returned directly to their wallets at the time of exploit.
"Confirming I will be temporarily joining the multisig as a signer for the initial period," said ZachXBT in response to the nomination, adding: “I just did not want to be on the multisig longterm, would expect any signers rotated out to be announced by the team.”
For additional compensation, developers also teased "massive multiples on game rewards" for returning depositors. In addition, the platform will "re-release with NFT migration plans and additional features to be revealed soon." Meanwhile, custodians and users who helped thwart the attack will receive “ETH and future MUNCH donations” for their assistance in asset recovery. Quoting Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, Munchables developers stated:
"We have two lives to munch, and the second begins when we realise we only have one."
On March 26, Munchables, built on the Ethereum layer-2 network Blast, was exploited for $63 million after allegedly hiring a North Korean developer known by the alias “Werewolves0943,” who subsequently compromised the game’s private wallets.
In a subsequent post-mortem analysis, ZachXBT claimed that the exploiter was impersonating four different developers who all worked for the Munchables team. After discovery, the malicious Munchables developer has since shared private keys with access to users' funds with no strings attached.
Related: A beginner's guide to the GameFi ecosystem
