Griffin AI's native Token $GAIN was launched on multiple exchanges on September 24, 2025, and quickly encountered a LayerZero cross-chain vulnerability attack, resulting in an illegal issuance of 5 billion coins and a price collapse of over 95%, highlighting the risks of third-party reliance in DeFi.
Event outbreak and market impact
On September 24, 2025, $GAIN was launched on platforms such as Binance Alpha and KuCoin. Within just a few hours, hackers illegally minted 5 billion Tokens through a LayerZero vulnerability, causing the total supply to surge from 1 billion to 5.3 billion, and the price to plummet by over 95%, reaching a low of $0.004185. New investors suffered heavy losses, and the community angrily demanded compensation and an investigation.
Attack methods and technical vulnerabilities
On-chain records show that on September 25 at 7:04 AM (UTC+8), an anonymous address deployed a fake Ethereum contract (0x7a8caf), utilizing an unauthorized LayerZero peer setting to breach the defense line and bypass the $GAIN no-mint design. Hacken’s audit originally confirmed the contract’s security, but this incident exposed third-party risks in cross-chain protocols, leading to market panic selling.
The team’s emergency measures in coordination with the exchange.
Griffin AI has immediately revoked the official liquidity pool, requesting Gate, MEXC, HTX, and others to suspend trading, deposits, and withdrawals, while warning to avoid suspicious LPs. Binance is assisting with post-analysis and compensation plans, although they are preventing secondary attacks, they have not announced a recovery plan, and investor confidence remains low.
Token roles and security disputes
$GAIN is originally positioned as a payment AI DeFi service, unlocking features and collateral for staking, belonging to the core of the Griffin AI ecosystem. This vulnerability contradicts auditing logic, intensifying external doubts about the project’s reliability, highlighting that even internal security cannot withstand external protocol weaknesses, necessitating enhanced multi-layer protection.
Future Challenges and Industry Warnings
After the incident, $GAIN saw a slight rebound, but it is still far below the launch price, and the community speculates about the risk of regulatory intervention. DeFi must pay attention to cross-chain security, and investors should carefully assess third-party dependencies. This case serves as a reminder that audits are not foolproof and continuous monitoring of the ecosystem dynamics is necessary.
* The information is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice or any other recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by Gate.
