The Fantom Foundation recently awarded out a $1.7 million reward to an undisclosed security researcher following a breach in one of its crypto wallets last month.

The unnamed researcher uncovered that the compromised wallet housed a dormant admin token crucial for Fantom's FTM token contract.

If the hacker had realised this earlier, they could have directly minted FTM tokens on Ethereum.

Potential Damange

Though the potential damage, estimated at $170 million based on token prices during the breach, loomed, the Fantom Foundation noted the hacker's challenge in realising such value due to limited market liquidity for the FTM token.

Fantom Foundation is a non-profit organisation that oversees the development of the Fantom blockchain.

The incident follows a previous hack in October, that cost the Foundation close to $660,000.

The compromised wallet, reassigned to an employee post-hack, was declared a "targeted personal attack."

Multichain Crisis

However, the October breach pales in comparison to Multichain's crisis in May this year.

This crypto bridge, integral to Fantom's DeFi ecosystem, faced a "force majeure" event, leading to a $126 million hack.

Multichain, citing the arrest of its CEO Zhaojun He by Chinese authorities, announced its closure, significantly impacting Fantom.

This turmoil saw the FTM token plummet over 50% between May and October, hitting a low of $0.17.

Transaction activity has also declined.