Mask Founder's $4M Crypto Heist: A Birthday Surprise

The founder of Mask Network, Suji Yan, has fallen victim to a sophisticated crypto heist, with nearly $4 million in digital assets stolen from his account. The incident, which occurred on Yan's birthday, has raised concerns about the security of Web3 platforms and the increasing sophistication of threat actors in the space.

The hack was first detected by Cyvers, a Web3 security firm, which identified a suspicious transfer of nearly $4 million worth of cryptocurrency to an address associated with Yan. The stolen assets were swiftly converted to ETH and dispersed across six separate addresses, a maneuver intended to obscure the money trail and complicate efforts to trace the funds.

Yan confirmed the hack on his social media, stating that the funds were transferred manually from his wallet. He suggested that the hack could have occurred during his birthday party, when his phone was away from him for a few moments. Yan alluded to the possibility of an offline attack, but more details are yet to be revealed.

The incident comes amidst a growing trend of crypto hacks and scams, with several high-profile social media accounts being compromised to promote fake meme coins. Last week, North Korea's Lazarus Group carried out the biggest hack in crypto history, the Bybit attack.

Mask Network, which bridges mainstream social media with blockchain technology, has yet to release an official statement confirming the hack. However, the incident could further impact the price of Mask Network's native token, MASK, which has already seen a 50% decline in the past three months.

The breach involved a complex mix of tokens, including 113 ETH, 923 WETH, 301 ezETH, 156 weETH, 90 pufET, 48,400 MASK, 50,000 USDT, and 15 swETH. The rapid and coordinated nature of the hack underscores the urgent need for real-time transaction monitoring, preemptive prevention, and rapid incident response in the Web3 space.