DataSource: Footprint Analytics - Illuvium Dashboard
On December 31, 2021, Illuvium's official Discord was hacked, leading users to a fraudulent website claiming to be the Illuvium NFT platform. The attackers stole approximately $150,000 worth of funds from users' authorized wallets. Additionally, within a week, a vulnerability was discovered in the Staking contract, unintentionally allowing the attackers to mint an unlimited amount of sILV.
Before the attack, Illuvium was highly anticipated with its open liquidity mining and staking features, ranking among the top 7 in terms of trading volume in the GameFi sector. However, after the attack, its trading volume dropped to 32nd place.
In light of this attack, will Illuvium be able to release its public test version as planned in the first quarter? Can it recover its previous trading volume ranking?
Why was Illuvium highly anticipated even before its launch?
Reason 1: Backed by a reputable team The founding team of Illuvium includes Kieran and Aaron Warwick, who are brothers of Kain Warwick, the founder of Synthetix. The project is a decentralized NFT collection and RPG game built on the Ethereum blockchain. The game is set in a mysterious alien world where players can capture NFT creatures called Illuvials. The experienced team with over 7 years of cryptocurrency project expertise and deep knowledge of the gaming industry naturally contributed to its hype.
Reason 2: Innovative gameplay Despite not officially launching its public test version, Illuvium has garnered attention for its innovative gameplay.
- Adventure Mode: Players can explore various locations in the mysterious alien world, build teams, and capture Illuvials. - Battle Arena: Illuvials or players can engage in battles against each other.
(1) Illuvials battles: Players use their captured Illuvials to engage in automated battles. During battles, Illuvials gain energy and reach a certain threshold to unleash special ultimate abilities, enhancing themselves and damaging the opponent.
(2) Player vs. Player battles: Players can battle against each other while wearing armor and wielding weapons. These configurations can be obtained through in-game mining, collecting, or purchasing from the secondary market. Other unrelated players can also spectate and place bets on match outcomes.
Players can profit in two ways - by completing tasks in tournaments to earn Illuvium's in-game token ILV, or by capturing Illuvials and collecting resources to buy/sell on the in-game marketplace IlluviDex (which is currently closed on the official website).
Reason 3: Reward tokens with value appreciation potential The game has two tokens, ILV and sILV.
ILV is the token of Illuvium, an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain with various use cases within the game and ecosystem.
sILV is a synthetic ILV token used as an in-game currency for travel and shards (used for capturing mythical creatures in the alien world). It can be obtained by staking ILV in the protocol. sILV cannot be traded between players, such as buying or selling Illuvials.
According to Footprint Analytics, the price of ILV soared after the launch of liquidity mining features in August 2021, reaching a peak of $1,853 on November 30. However, with the delay in the release of Illuvium's public test version and the incident where attackers exploited vulnerabilities to steal funds, the price of ILV plummeted to $568, and the trading volume also became less promising.
Challenges and opportunities for Illuvium:
According to Footprint Analytics, as of December 31, 2021, Illuvium ranked among the top 7 games in terms of GameFi trading volume with $1.43 million, second only to Metaverse Miner. However, the impact of the attack has caused the current trading volume of Illuvium to almost reach its historic low.
The Illuvium team promptly disclosed and fixed the vulnerabilities following the attack, reducing the risk of fund theft. The team has temporarily halted the minting of sILV and compensated users for the funds lost in the scam. They have also implemented various measures to enhance the protocol's security, including:
- Thoroughly reviewing and identifying inactive users and malicious actors in Discord to prevent them from sending fraudulent messages. - Revoking webhook generation permissions for all users except super administrators. - Strengthening the application's security, focusing on bug fixes, vulnerabilities, and workflow improvements. - Discontinuing sILV and planning to mint a new sILV token (tentatively called "sILVV2") to replace the original sILVV1 token, with implementation in the StakingV2 contract, among other measures.
In conclusion, even before its official launch, Illuvium has attracted attention from users due to its reputable team, innovative gameplay, and tokens with potential value appreciation. However, it has also attracted the attention of attackers. We hope that the