Bittensor (TAO) Halts Trading to Investigate User Attack Allegations

The price of Bittensor's TAO token is plummeting due to news of the project halting trading to investigate alleged user attacks.

Bittensor (TAO) Halts Trading to Investigate User Attack Allegations

Update as of July 4, 2024:

As of July 4 morning, Bittensor has provided an update on the network situation, stating that the issue lies with the PyPi Package Manager v6.12.2 update, affecting validators responsible for transaction verification on this blockchain.

The Bittensor team has declared that due to the severity of the incident, they have made the difficult decision to temporarily halt trading. The project is currently conducting a thorough review to identify any remaining vulnerabilities and is collaborating with exchanges to recover lost funds.

However, operations on Bittensor remain disrupted and have not yet resumed after 27 hours since the incident was first reported.

Original article:

According to on-chain detective ZachXBT, the Bittensor blockchain network (TAO) has announced the suspension of trading to investigate alleged user attacks. This information was confirmed by a Bittensor representative on the project's Discord channel.

ZachXBT also speculates that the cause of the incident could be due to a leaked private key, resulting in funds worth up to $8 million being withdrawn from an address.

Earlier in early June, a Bittensor user also reportedly lost $11.2 million in TAO tokens under unclear circumstances.

The Bittensor block explorer shows that network operations have been disrupted since approximately 06:20 AM on July 3, 2024.

Bittensor block explorer data as of 09:30 AM on July 3, 2024. Source: Taostats

The price of Bittensor's TAO token has dropped nearly 15% at the time of writing due to the blockchain halting operations to investigate the alleged attack.

hour chart of TAO/USDT pair on Binance as of 09:30 AM on July 3, 2024