Hacker Attacks and Token Delisting: The Dilemma and Future of Pundi AI

On July 12, Pundi AI suffered a hacker attack, resulting in the abnormal issuance of 1 million tokens. In response to this crisis, the team quickly took action, freezing and recovering nearly 90% of the stolen funds, while fully compensating the affected users. However, due to untimely information disclosure, Pundi AI was notified by the Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA) to be delisted from Korean exchanges.

The key timeline of the event is as follows:

• March 2: Function X announced a rebranding to PUNDIAI and conducted a Token swap.
• July 12: Hacker launched an attack, generating an abnormal increase of 1 million Tokens; transfers were frozen on the same day and tracking was initiated; the CEO publicly disclosed the contract vulnerability to the community.
• July 14: Disclose the investigation results and solutions for the attack incident to the exchange.
• July 28: Upbit and Bithumb announced the delisting of PundiAI on August 28.
• July 31: Official statement recovers over 80% of assets, completes full compensation for users.

PANews exclusively interviewed Danny Lim, co-founder of Pundi AI, to深入探讨了整个事件过程、安全提醒、韩国市场合规操作规范，以及Pundi AI在AI数据领域的产品布局和对Web3 AI赛道发展的看法。

Theft Incident and Handling Process

The hacker exploited a vulnerability in the token migration contract to gain administrator privileges ahead of the deployment of the new contract. This type of attack is very precise, requiring accurate timing and block calculations.

In order to recover the assets, the team decided not to disclose information to avoid alarming the Hacker. This strategy allowed them to successfully intercept about 95% of the stolen assets. In the end, approximately 6 million dollars worth of Tokens were issued, and the team recovered 87%, bearing nearly 2 million dollars in losses themselves.

The Dilemma and Future Plans of the South Korean Market

Pundi AI has been operating in the South Korean market since 2019, accumulating a large user base. However, this delisting has had a significant impact on its liquidity. Nevertheless, community users still show trust in the project.

In the face of the current predicament, Pundi AI has formulated three core plans:

1. Increase investment in decentralized exchanges and provide sufficient liquidity.
2. Vigorously promote new AI data products.
3. Implement token buyback and airdrop programs to reward supporters.

The Vision and Challenges of AI Data Assetization

Pundi AI's new product Data Pump is described as "a Launchpad for AI datasets". Users can package various content data into NFTs, then stake them on the platform to generate Tokens and trade.

Compared to other AI data projects, Pundi AI focuses on high-quality data in specialized niches, developed AI AMM (Automated Market Maker), and has a vast data foundation.

Danny believes that the bottleneck in the development of Web3 AI lies in the lack of genuinely useful applications. He points out that the true value of blockchain in the AI field is to protect users' data sovereignty and privacy. However, ordinary users have not yet fully recognized the importance of data privacy.

He predicts that the real boom in the Web3 AI sector may need to wait for traditional AI giants to actively embrace blockchain technology to provide users with data protection features. This trend is likely to be led by traditional giants rather than driven by Web3 native projects.