Gala Games CEO cites poor internal controls as the cause of a $23M security incident involving the unauthorized minting and selling of GALA tokens.
According to the CEO of Gala Games, the recent “security incident” involving a criminal who stole and sold $23 million worth of Gala Games’ GALA token was caused by “messed up” internal controls.
Blockchain observers reported earlier on May 20 at 7:32 pm UTC that 5 billion GALA, or the price at the time, were minted. However, the wallet responsible was selling the token in segments and was only able to sell a portion of it.
Twenty-four hours after reports of the compromise surfaced, GALA reached a low of $0.038—a 20% decline from its daily high of the previous hour. Since then, it has recovered marginally to $0.041.
Gala, according to Schiermeyer, “discovered the compromise” and “removed unauthorized access to the GALA contract.” He further stated that the Ethereum contract “is secure” and “has never been compromised.”
Schiermeyer wrote that Gala, in collaboration with the FBI, the United States Justice Department, and “a network of international authorities,” believes it has identified the perpetrator.
Gala and Schiermeyer refrained from disclosing the identity of the culprit or the means by which they obtained unauthorized access to the GALA contract.
The Gala Games declined to comment in response to a request.
On behalf of Gala Games, Schiermeyer and fellow co-founder Wright Thurston filed lawsuits against one another in August.
Thurston asserted that Schiermeyer was responsible for Gala’s “sell-off and waste of millions of dollars in company assets,” while Schiermeyer asserted that Thurston had stolen a GALA valued at $130 million.
