Serenity Shield’s token falls nearly 99% after MetaMask wallet breach

The token behind Serenity Shield, a self-described “crypto inheritance” solution, fell nearly 99% after around 6.9 million SERSH tokens worth $5.6 million at the time were swiped from one of the team’s MetaMask wallets.

Serenity Shield confirmed the exploit in a Feb. 27 X post and informed its community it was suspending all trades, deposits and withdrawals of SERSH on centralized exchanges.

SERSH would relaunch with a new token contract, the project said without disclosing a timeline.

Important Update for the Serenity Shield Community

Dear Serenity Shield Community,

In response to recent events surrounding the SERSH token and speculations regarding its price action, we want to provide clarity on the ongoing situation.

Earlier today, one of our Metamask…

— Serenity Shield (@SerenityShield_) February 27, 2024

“This decision aligns with our commitment to responsibly safeguard the interests of our community and minimize exposure to the security incident,” it wrote.

In the same post, Serenity Shield said it is “actively working” to redeploy all liquidity to the new smart contracts and will replace any liquidity from the exploit.

Security Alert & Serenity Shield's Response

Today, a MetaMask wallet related to our project was compromised. Consequently, we're taking immediate steps to address this and support our community:

✋ Stop Trading on PancakeSwap: As previously communicated, please halt all…

— Serenity Shield (@SerenityShield_) February 27, 2024

The exploit occurred at 9:11 am UTC on Feb. 27, where 6.9 million SERSH, priced at $0.82, was transferred from one of the project’s MetaMask wallets to an unidentified third-party wallet.

SERSH’s price trended downward for about five hours, then in a five-minute span, suddenly fell 98% from $0.565 to $0.009, according to CoinGecko.

SERSH partially recovered to $0.23 at the time of publication.

Related: Axie Infinity co-founder loses $9.7M in 3,248-ETH wallet hack

The news wasn’t received well by several X users, including “Hamster Altcoins,” who claimed that administrators of Serenity Shield’s Telegram channel were muting those who called them out.

The X user also criticized the proje for storing funds in a MetaMask hot wallet.

Hot wallets like MetaMask are connected to the internet to enable faster and easier access to decentralized finance protocols. They’re considered less secure than so-called cold wallets, which are a physical device that stores private keys offline.

The SERSH token was launched less than ten weeks ago, on Dec. 18.

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