Bittensor, a decentralized AI network, has paused blockchain transactions after users’ wallets were compromised, resulting in the loss of $8 million worth of assets.
Earlier today, blockchain investigator ZachXBT informed his Telegram Channel members that a Bittensor user had lost 32,000 TAO tokens, worth approximately $8 million, due to a leaked private key. “Bittensor was halted due to additional thefts earlier today potentially as a result of private key leakage,” ZachXBT wrote.
In response to the attack, the Bittensor team confirmed the incident and announced on social media platform X that the blockchain would enter “safe mode” for 24 hours to investigate the “attack on a number of Bittensor wallets.” During this period, the network will continue to produce blocks, but no transactions will be processed.
“We are prioritizing this issue for the rest of this week,” the team stated, adding that no regular software updates for Bittensor or any chain on either mainnet or testnet will be released until the network is fully operational again.
Ala Shaabana, Bittensor’s co-founder, corroborated the update in a separate social media post. “By way of an update, we have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode (blocks producing but no transactions are permitted). We’re still mid-investigation and are considering all possibilities. Stay tuned,” Shaabana wrote.
The Bittensor network, which connects machine learning models owned by various individuals worldwide, is one of the largest AI-focused crypto projects with a market capitalization of $1.6 billion. As investigations continue, the crypto community watches closely, hoping for a resolution and restoration of trust in the network’s security protocols.