Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer recently addressed a “security incident” involving the unauthorized sale of 600 million GALA tokens. Schiermeyer confirmed this on Tuesday.
In a recent statement, Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer attributed a smart contract “security incident” to “messed up” internal controls, which led to a hacker successfully stealing and selling $23 million worth of the GALA token.
On May 20 at 7:32 pm UTC, blockchain observers reported that an unauthorized entity minted 5 billion GALA tokens, valued at approximately $200 million at the time. The wallet responsible for this minting then sold the tokens in batches, successfully exchanging a significant portion of them.
Following reports of the security breach, the GALA token’s value plummeted to a 24-hour low of $0.038, marking a 20% drop from its peak just an hour before the incident, according to CoinGecko. Since then, the token has slightly recovered, stabilizing at $0.041.
“We had an incident that resulted in the unauthorized SALE of 600million […] GALA tokens and the effective BURN of 4.4 billion tokens,” Gala Games co-founder and CEO Eric Schiermeyer wrote in a May 20 X post.
“We messed up our internal controls,” he added. “This shouldn’t have happened, and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Schiermeyer said Gala “identified the compromise” and removed “unauthorized access to the GALA contract.” Its Ethereum contract “is secure” and “was never compromised,” he added.
The Gala Games’ CEO stated that the company believes it has identified the individual responsible for the recent security incident. In response to the unauthorized minting and sale of GALA tokens, Gala Games is actively collaborating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Justice Department, and an extensive network of international authorities to conduct a thorough investigation.
Neither Gala Games nor its CEO Eric Schiermeyer have publicly disclosed the identity of the individual allegedly responsible for the security incident or the methods the perpetrator used to gain unauthorized access to the GALA contract.
As of this writing, Gala Games has not provided any additional comments or information in response to inquiries regarding the recent security incident and the ongoing investigation.
In 2023, a legal dispute erupted between Gala Games co-founders Eric Schiermeyer and Wright Thurston, as both parties filed lawsuits against each other.
CEO Eric Schiermeyer accused Wright Thurston of stealing $130 million worth of GALA tokens, insinuating that Thurston had enriched himself at the company’s expense. On the other hand, Wright Thurston alleged that Eric Schiermeyer’s mismanagement of Gala Games led to the waste and sale of company assets worth millions of dollars.
