3,832 NFTs moved into Whitehat Custody after Magic Eden vulnerability

A whitehat moved 3,832 NFTs from hundreds of wallets on Friday into a single receiving wallet, after concerns surfaced about a vulnerability at the NFT marketplace Magic Eden. The transfer was meant to keep the assets safe while a fix was arranged.

How the operation came to light

The activity first showed up as a string of sales on Magic Eden, which is what caught the attention of Cirrus, an NFT community member on X. Cirrus flagged that a single wallet had moved 3,832 NFTs out of hundreds of wallets and advised holders to revoke permissions as a precaution.

Who's behind the protective custody

Yuga Labs' pseudonymous vice president of blockchain, who goes by 0xQuit on X, confirmed the transfers were a whitehat operation. He said the NFTs in the receiving wallet are safe and will be returned once they are no longer at risk. Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge added that a vulnerability was discovered a few hours earlier and that the company would share more information soon.

This is not 0xQuit's first time coordinating a recovery. In June, he helped recover 68 NFTs worth more than $500,000 after an exploit hit Flooring Protocol, with the assets later held for return to affected users.

What Magic Eden has said

Not much, and that is part of the story. Magic Eden has not publicly confirmed that its contracts were exploited. The exact nature of the vulnerability has not been described publicly, and the affected collections have not been named.

What users should check

The protective move pulls tokens out of any wallet that had approved Magic Eden to move them. If you have granted Magic Eden any approvals, the immediate step is to revoke them. If you saw a sale on Friday that you did not initiate, your NFT is most likely sitting in the whitehat's receiving wallet, where 0xQuit has said it will remain safe until the underlying issue is resolved.