Hackers Target Social Media Account of The Sandbox, Again!

Malevolent forces in the metaverse are inevitable. When an ecosystem grows, it attracts a lot of eyes but not necessarily good ones. Recently, The Sandbox, a play-to-earn metaverse game, revealed that one of their social media accounts had been compromised. The company says they are currently investigating the matter.

$3.7 Billion Were Drained From Web3 Spaces in 2023

The Sandbox team took the alert to Twitter and urged the users not to click any link coming from their Instagram account until further notice. It is among the biggest metaverse games, with over a million daily active users on the network. The company has partnered with renowned entities, including Adidas, Ubisoft, Gucci, and more.

According to CertiK, hackers drained $3.7 Billion from Web3 spaces in 2022, an almost a two-fold increase year-on-year. Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge collapse remained the biggest attack of the year, where North Korea-based hacker group, Lazarus, fished over $600 Million from the network. Sky Mavis, the game’s creator, announced they would compensate the affected users.

Recently, Animoca Brands, maker of The Sandbox game, made its way to Fortune Crypto 40 list. The organization was among the top 5 venture capitalist firms in this benchmark ranking. Moreover, the metaverse company recently announced Daisuke Iwase, founder of one of the platforms Animoca has invested in, as their new Chief Executive Officer.

The metaverse platform saw a similar incident happen on their Instagram account last year. The hackers bypassed two-factor authentication (2FA) and tried to rent Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs from users. Users explained that they lost their non-fungible tokens after clicking malicious links.

Web3, or the semantic web, is still in its infancy and is expected to reach $45 Billion by 2030, research shows. However, the market was valued at around $3 Billion in 2022. The sector needs to grow 15-fold in eight years to mark the estimate. Web3 will be at the heart of the metaverse; however, security may remain the primary concern.

A few nations, including Dubai and South Korea, have started seeing their future in virtual spaces. Furthermore, the country’s government wants to attract over 1,000 companies and generate more than 40,000 jobs by 2030. Most sectors will potentially leverage this technology from retail to real estate in the forthcoming years.

We may not see the metaverse or web3 entering the mainstream soon; however, security issues will likely make potential users insecure about the sector. Web3 companies, including Fortnite, Roblox, The Sandbox, and more, currently hold around 200 Million users. To keep their ships afloat in the future, they are required to do some robust dry docking now.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.