NFT trader Cirrus flagged unusual activity on Magic Eden after a wallet drained thousands of NFTs for 0 ETH, raising fears of a contract exploit. A pseudonymous user later claimed the transfers were a whitehat operation and said the assets would be returned. Magic Eden has not confirmed an exploit or disclosed how many wallets were affected.
NFT trader Cirrus first flagged the activity on Sept. 25, warning that a single wallet had drained 3,832 NFTs from hundreds of different wallets tied to Magic Eden. The sales showed NFTs changing hands for 0 ETH, pointing to a possible smart contract exploit on the marketplace.
Cirrus urged anyone who had previously interacted with Magic Eden to revoke their NFT approvals, but noted the funding source traced back to a wallet possibly linked to X user @0xQuit, which could mean a whitehat was behind the drain. Magic Eden had not released an official statement confirming an exploit at the time of writing, leaving the scale of the incident unclear.
Possible whitehat says NFTs are safe
Shortly after the warning, the pseudonymous user Quit claimed the activity was a whitehat operation. Quit said assets held at the address 0x71cF3f5724bD2B72Ef6464992aCd26216DE7fe33 were safe and would be returned once they were no longer considered at risk.
No confirmation from Magic Eden has established that the address belongs to an authorized whitehat, however, or that the transactions were part of a coordinated recovery effort. Details about the vulnerability, the number of wallets affected, and the total value of NFTs moved remain undisclosed.
Magic Eden had ended EVM marketplace support
The activity comes months after Magic Eden changed its marketplace operations. The company ended support for its Bitcoin and EVM-based NFT marketplaces earlier this year, while keeping its Solana marketplace running, and its own support documentation states that EVM marketplace support ended on March 9.
Magic Eden's current products include Packs, which can contain NFTs from Ethereum collections that are then tradable on the marketplace. The company has yet to say whether the Sept. 25 activity touched those services or involved contracts tied to its discontinued EVM marketplace.
Source: crypto.news
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