GAIN, the native utility token of Griffin AI, has suffered a dramatic 87% plunge following its market debut yesterday.
On-chain investigations revealed that the collapse was driven by an attacker minting an additional 5 billion tokens and dumping them into the market, devastating early investors and sparking security concerns.
Why Did GAIN Token’s Price Crash?
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For context, Griffin AI is a no-code platform for building, deploying, and scaling autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The project powers more than 15,000 live agents, enabling users to create tools for transaction execution, research, yield farming, and more.
The GAIN token powers the Griffin AI ecosystem by enabling access to advanced agents, AI service credits, and operator collateral. It also supports creator tools. Looking ahead, staked GAIN will help secure the node network and align incentives across contributors.
The token’s trading started on Binance Alpha on September 24, accompanied by an exclusive airdrop for users holding at least 210 Alpha Points.
“Binance Alpha is the first platform to feature Griffin AI (GAIN), with Alpha trading opening on September 24, 2025, at 11:00 (UTC),” Binance posted.
Furthermore, GAIN also secured listing on other major centralized exchanges, including KuCoin, HTX, MEXC, and Gate.io. However, its launch was followed by a massive price drop.
BeInCrypto Markets data showed that GAIN’s value has dipped by nearly 87%, causing substantial investor losses. At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading at $0.027.
Amid the price drop, daily trading volume surged 126% to $96 million, with decentralized exchanges (DEXs) accounting for the majority of activity.
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Inside the GAIN Mint-and-Dump Attack
But what caused this sharp dip? On-chain analytics showed that unusual activity started several hours ago. A wallet address 0xF3d17326130f90c1900bc0b69323c4c7e2d58Db2 minted 5 billion GAIN tokens, inflating the total supply from the original 1 billion.
“Tracing the source of funds upward, it’s a new address that received ETH from Tornado 13 hours ago, converted to BNB via Symbiosis cross-chain,” an on-chain analyst noted.
The attacker sold 147.5 million tokens on PancakeSwap, a leading multichain DEX, netting 2,955 BNB (approximately $3 million)
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According to EmberCN, the 2,955 BNB were converted through deBridge into 720.81 ETH and distributed into the following six wallets:
- 0x1afc80d0E15cBCBfAAB9aD5520b4ab843Dfd648D
- 0xD4d83C2BC58B97d6458a7AE7d5b417c5422DC04C
- 0xB31BDDb3d1c2b45E5c5fE149Aa4c8304e9D1916C
- 0xa6654f227EcCF2f84476d2d51434081613F8Baba
- 0x107E83EBE677DDec253C440127F23310720177c2
- 0xf1755A2b7d0e418E9BAB4F81AD674fa39fA7F23D
The analyst added that the funds are starting to flow into the Tornado Cash for obfuscation. Meanwhile, GoPlus Security later confirmed the exploit stemmed from an unauthorized LayerZero peer setup, similar to a prior attack on the Yala project.
“The attacker (likely insider or via social engineering attack) added a fake LayerZero Peer on Ethereum, minted fake TTTTT tokens, and used it to bypass cross-chain checks — then minted 5 billion GAIN on BSC,” GoPlus Security posted.
The event has attracted substantial criticism from the community, with many users reporting losses from the incident.
“We accept losses, but not fraud. In the market, if we lose money through fair competition, then a loss is a loss — we accept it. But what do you call this kind of malicious minting and dumping?” a user stated.
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Nonetheless, some agree that this could be the work of an outsider and not the core team itself.
“The operation doesn’t seem like something the project team would do; it’s too blatant and audacious… It looks like someone exploited a minting vulnerability, but we’ll wait for the official announcement,” another analyst added.
Still, the crash has significantly eroded users’ trust. In response, the Griffin AI team issued a statement on X confirming the exploit’s mechanics. Moreover, the team has also taken down the authorized liquidity pool on BNB Chain to shield holders and asked exchanges to freeze GAIN activity.
“Please DO NOT interact with any LPs that may be created by the attacker. They are not official and pose a risk. ETH GAIN remains safe,” the post read.
The GAIN exploit has left investors reeling and cast doubt on Griffin AI’s token launch. While the team is working to mitigate the breach, it remains uncertain whether these measures will restore confidence or improve the token’s price action.
Source: https://beincrypto.com/griffin-ai-gain-token-crash-exploit/