Hacking attack drains £5m from 8,000 wallets linked to Solana crypto network

Nearly $6m (£4.9m) has been drained from accounts linked to the Solana crypto network after a hacker targeted 8,000 wallets.

The Solana Foundation, an organisation that supports the blockchain network, said a "malicious actor" had taken funds from a number of wallets linked to Solana.

It said the hack had affected approximately 8,000 wallets, the virtual equivalent of physical wallets where users store their cryptocurrency and the private keys that give them unique ownership of their assets.

"Engineers are currently working with multiple security researchers and ecosystem teams to identify the root cause of the exploit, which is unknown at this time," said the foundation, via the Solana Status Twitter account.

Elliptic, a blockchain consultancy that helps clients combat crypto-related crime, said the attack began on 2 August and $5.8m had been taken so far. It said the assets stolen included the Solana cryptocurrency, or SOL, and non-fungible tokens.

"Users of the Solana blockchain have become the latest target for crypto hackers," said Elliptic. "The attack - which began on August 2 - has so far seen over $5.8m in funds drained from 7,947 wallets. The stolen assets include SOL, a small number of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and over 300 Solana-based tokens."

Elliptic added that the problem appeared to be with software used by certain wallets rather than the blockchain itself, the digital register recording transactions that forms the basis of crypto assets.

"The root cause is still not clear, but it appears to be due to a flaw in certain wallet software - rather than in the Solana blockchain itself," said Elliptic, adding that it appeared a single hacker was involved.