Arbitrum’s ARB token airdrop caused a frenzy in the crypto community, resulting in unprecedented on-chain activity for the layer-2 solution. The introduction of ARB caused Arbitrum to become a DAO.
During the release, some hunters collected a significant amount of ARB tokens. Within the first hour, over 42 million ARB tokens were claimed, and two “super airdrop hunters” received 1.4 million ARB, valued at around $1.92 million, and 933,375 ARB, valued at $1.28 million, respectively. Collectively, the two hunters amassed approximately $3.3 million through 1,496 addresses.
- According to blockchain analysis firm Lookonchain, the account that received 1.4 million ARB added the total amount to Uniswap, a decentralized exchange, to provide liquidity.
- Unfortunately, the mania surrounding the airdrop opened opportunities for bad actors to obtain the tokens.
- A hacker who used compromised vanity addresses to claim the airdrop made over $500,000, revealed the founder and CEO of Hashscan NFT growth platform, Alexander Tkachenko.
- Interestingly, all the addresses used were generated with Profanity, a tool for generating custom crypto wallets with identifiable names or numbers within them. Last year, 1inch contributors found the tool to be unsafe due to its susceptibility to attacks during the address generation process.
- Additionally, crypto intelligence platform Arkham discovered a wallet that anticipated the airdrop from over 2,400 presumably compromised wallets. The hacker had sent small amounts of ETH to pay for gas to claim ARB several hours before the airdrop.
