GAIN, the native utility token of Griffin AI, has experienced a staggering 87% drop following its market introduction yesterday.
On-chain analysis has revealed that this decline was instigated by an attacker minting an additional 5 billion tokens and flooding the market, severely impacting initial investors and raising security alarms.
What Caused the GAIN Token Price Drop?
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To provide context, Griffin AI is a no-code platform designed for the creation, deployment, and scaling of autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The project supports over 15,000 active agents, allowing users to build tools for transactional execution, research, yield farming, and beyond.
The GAIN token serves as the backbone of the Griffin AI ecosystem, facilitating access to advanced agents, AI service credits, and operational collateral. It also supports creator tools. In the future, staked GAIN will play a role in securing the node network and aligning incentives across contributors.
Trading for the token commenced on Binance Alpha on September 24, accompanied by a unique airdrop for users with at least 210 Alpha Points.
“Binance Alpha is the first platform to launch Griffin AI (GAIN), with trading starting on September 24, 2025, at 11:00 (UTC),” Binance announced.
Additonally, GAIN has been listed on several other major centralized exchanges, such as KuCoin, HTX, MEXC, and Gate.io. Unfortunately, its launch was followed by a significant price decline.
Data from BeInCrypto Markets revealed that GAIN’s value plummeted by nearly 87%, resulting in considerable losses for investors. At the time of writing, the altcoin was priced at $0.027.
In light of the price decline, daily trading volume surged by 126% to $96 million, with decentralized exchanges (DEXs) accounting for the majority of transactions.
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Understanding the GAIN Mint-and-Dump Incident
So, what triggered this sharp decline? On-chain analytics indicated that irregular activity began several hours ago. A wallet address 0xF3d17326130f90c1900bc0b69323c4c7e2d58Db2 minted 5 billion GAIN tokens, inflating the total supply from the original 1 billion.
“Examining the source of funds, it’s a new address that received ETH from Tornado 13 hours ago and converted it to BNB via Symbiosis cross-chain,” noted an on-chain analyst .
The attacker liquidated 147.5 million tokens on PancakeSwap, a prominent multichain DEX, netting 2,955 BNB (roughly $3 million).
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As per information from EmberCN, the 2,955 BNB were converted through deBridge into 720.81 ETH and further distributed among the following six wallets:
- 0x1afc80d0E15cBCBfAAB9aD5520b4ab843Dfd648D
- 0xD4d83C2BC58B97d6458a7AE7d5b417c5422DC04C
- 0xB31BDDb3d1c2b45E5c5fE149Aa4c8304e9D1916C
- 0xa6654f227EcCF2f84476d2d51434081613F8Baba
- 0x107E83EBE677DDec253C440127F23310720177c2
- 0xf1755A2b7d0e418E9BAB4F81AD674fa39fA7F23D
The analyst indicated that these funds are beginning to flow into Tornado Cash for concealment. Meanwhile, GoPlus Security later confirmed that the exploit originated from an illegitimate LayerZero peer setup, similar to a previous attack on the Yala project.
“The attacker, presumably an insider or via social engineering, added a fraudulent LayerZero Peer on Ethereum, minted fake TTTTT tokens, and used it to circumvent cross-chain validations — subsequently minting 5 billion GAIN on BSC,” GoPlus Security documented.
This incident has drawn significant criticism from the community, with numerous users reporting financial losses from the event.
“We accept losses, but not deceit. If we lose money through fair competition, then we take it as a loss — but what do you call this type of malicious minting and selling?” a user expressed.
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Some, however, believe this may have been the work of an outsider and not the core team.
“The operation seems too overt and bold for the project team; it feels like someone exploited a minting vulnerability, but we will await an official statement,” another analyst noted.
Nonetheless, the decline has severely damaged users’ trust. In response, the Griffin AI team released a statement on X confirming the details of the exploit. Furthermore, the team has deactivated the authorized liquidity pool on BNB Chain to protect holders and requested exchanges to suspend GAIN operations.
“Please DO NOT engage with any LPs that might have been established by the attacker. They are unofficial and could be hazardous. ETH GAIN is secure,” the post stated.
The GAIN exploit has left investors in shock and raised questions about Griffin AI’s token launch. While the team is working to address the breach, it remains uncertain whether these efforts will restore confidence or positively influence the token’s price movement.
