Griffin AI, a Binance Alpha project, crashed by 90% just a day after its launch. An exploit that minted unauthorized GAIN tokens caused the rapid loss of value.
Griffin AI (GAIN) was one of the projects featured on Binance Alpha in the past day, offering a special airdrop for eligible users. Just hours after the token launch, the asset was down by 87%, based on a period of concentrated selling.
Although Binance Alpha tokens are curated, their initial trading is often risky and can cause deep losses. However, a nearly 90% crash for GAIN was linked to an on-chain exploit.
A Binance address minted an additional 5B GAIN, later dumping only a small part of the tokens through PancakeSwap. Due to the limited liquidity, the mint was enough to tank GAIN. In its initial trading, the asset was mostly represented on PancakeSwap and Uniswap.
The accident involved a fake LayerZero peer token for GAIN, which allowed the exploiter to offer non-existent liquidity. The contract then allowed the attacker to create 5B GAIN and fully use them for swaps.
Griffin AI project requests official trading freeze
Following the trading disaster and unauthorized token minting, the Griffin AI team called out to all exchanges to halt GAIN trading. For now, the token can still be transferred and swaps through Binance’s DEX router continue to go through.
GAIN tokens are still held by only around 4K users, and the losses are limited. The asset hovers around $0.02 after trading started at $0.18. The team requested to stop centralized markets, where available, to prevent the attacker from transacting more tokens.
We have formally requested all exchanges to pause trading, deposits & withdrawals of $GAIN (BSC).
This prevents the attacker from transacting and protects our community.
We’re coordinating closely with exchanges & security partners.
🙏 Thank you for your patience. More updates…
— GriffinAI | The #1 AI Agent Builder for DeFi 🤖 (@Griffin_AI) September 25, 2025
So far, Mexc has stopped its early-stage market for GAIN. The Mexc exchange noted the unauthorized supply gain even earlier and stopped GAIN trading even before the Griffin AI team explicitly requested.
However, even with a trading halt, the attacker has already swapped out multiple tranches of GAIN and bridged around 2,500 BNB to the main network. The Griffin AI project was a multi-chain structure, and the attacker used a fake Ethereum contract, but ended up taking BNB tokens after swapping.
The big problem is that GAIN still has 4.8B tokens outstanding in unauthorized supply, with no decision yet on freezing or removing the assets.
Griffin AI stops airdrop campaign
Following the exploit, Griffin AI has announced the end of its airdrop campaign. The previous Binance Alpha airdrop will not be affected, but no new tokens will be issued from the project’s reserves.
The token is still live, and Binance Alpha traders have full access to swaps. The recent GAIN token event recalls the recent exploit of the UXLink token, which also fell due to unauthorized minting. As Cryptopolitan reported, the token remains active. Ironically, the hacker’s wallet itself was emptied by another phishing address.
Following the exploit, Binance removed the incentives for trading GAIN and canceled the volume boost events, leaving just regular decentralized swaps.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/griffin-ai-crash-unauthorized-gain-minting/