How Chill Drone (CHONE) Bounced Back from a Phishing Attack and Flipped the Script

Chill Drone (CHONE) is a new token that blew up recently. But what goes up can come down — especially in crypto. This nascent project faced a devastating phishing attack that drained its wallets. Talk about a sink or swim moment!

A Brief Overview of CHONE and Its Aspirations

What's CHONE about? In a nutshell, the project wanted to build a chill investment community revolving around the drone meme. The token sought to attract both experienced meme token enthusiasts and those new to the scene. The team had real-world business experience outside crypto, which gave the project some added weight. The aim was to replicate the success of Pudgy Penguins and foster a community that extended into physical items and merchandise.

The Phishing Attack: A Harsh Reality Check

Then came the phishing attack. The team got approached with a link that drained their wallets while they were attempting to verify their token on Jupiter DEX aggregator. After two weeks without feedback, they reached out through the real Telegram channel of Jupiter.

That's when one of the team members stumbled across a phishing group boasting over 73,000 members. A scammer masquerading as a developer named Alex Dobrin sent over a malicious link. The perpetrator asked the team to connect their largest wallet to the link. In a matter of moments, the entire wallet was drained, plus the linked wallets.

Recovery: Injecting Personal Funds and Finding Stability

The team found out about the drained wallet only after community members sensed something was awry. Initially, it seemed like a rug pull. The CHONE token’s price dropped dramatically due to a $60,000 sell-off in a single transaction. In an effort to stabilize the asset, they injected personal funds. The only selling pressure was from the hacker, as CHONE is widely distributed amongst multiple wallets — none holding more than 5% of the total supply.

What did they do? They tossed in about $50K from their own pockets and kept buying more tokens to raise the market cap and buy back the stolen tokens. Their actions not only stabilized the coin but also repaired relations with the community, many of whom believed in the long-term vision of the project and bought back in as they realized the coin was trading at a ‘discount.’

Lessons Learned: Striking a Balance Between Security and Trust

This incident serves as a wake-up call, highlighting the need for more security in digital currency systems. Here are their takeaways:

Using self-custodied wallets can minimize risks. This keeps you clear of custodial financial institutions, which have shown themselves to be fragile and prone to devastating losses.

Verifying the identity and contract details of clients is critical before sharing personal information like wallet addresses or private keys. This step is vital to guard against scams like advance fee scams and phony job offers.

Using escrow smart contracts can provide a high level of security for freelancers and crypto projects by holding the payment until the work is completed and both parties are satisfied.

Regularly monitoring wallet balances is essential to ensure accurate transactions and detect unauthorized activity or movement of funds.

Cryptocurrency payment platforms like Archway.Finance offer secure payment methods. Using these can help bypass traditional banking hassles, mitigate currency fluctuations, and ensure transactions are recorded on a decentralized ledger.

Summary: The Future of CHONE and Its Community

Despite the setback, the Chill Drone team isn't throwing in the towel. They're committed to developing the asset further. The newly verified token is already listed on CoinGecko, starting trading anew from January 13. The team will continue to investigate the hack while simultaneously working on the platform's development. Ultimately, it's a strong rallying cry for a community that now knows the stakes. Consider this a lesson learned, for better or for worse.