Truebit (TRU) Sees a Dramatic 99.95% Drop Amid Cyvers Warning of $26 Million ETH Loss

On January 8, Cyvers Alerts detected a problematic transaction involving Truebit (TRU), leading to a significant loss estimated at $26 million. This incident resulted in a staggering 99.95% drop in TRU's on-chain price, suggesting a potential liquidity issue rather than normal selling activity.

Key Takeaways

Cyvers Alerts flagged a suspicious Truebit transaction on January 8, with losses estimated at $26 million.
TRU’s price fell 99.95% within a day, indicating possible liquidity issues.
The transaction may relate to 8,535 ETH, raising questions about its nature—whether it pertains to treasury funds or a compromised wallet.
Confusion between Truebit (TRU) and TrueFi (TRU) could complicate trading strategies, given their similar labels.
Market makers might adjust their quotes until the source of the ETH loss is clarified.

Understanding the Incident

On January 8, Cyvers Alerts brought to attention a suspicious transaction related to Truebit Protocol, resulting in an estimated loss of $26 million. Preliminary investigations revealed that the price of TRU on-chain plummeted by 99.95% across at least one token tracker. Such a drastic decline often points to a lack of liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEX) or problems with the price feed rather than ordinary selling pressure.

Onchain Details

The specific contract associated with Truebit Protocol is identified as 0x764C64b2A09b09Acb100B80d8c505Aa6a0302EF2 on the Ethereum blockchain, as marked by Etherscan. Cyvers' valuation of the incident is linked to 8,535 ETH (approximately $26 million at around $3,100 per ETH). A crucial question remains whether this ETH involves treasury funds, a wrongly categorized transaction, or a compromised hot wallet connected to Truebit’s TRU sales mechanism mentioned in project documentation, which states that “All sales transact in ETH.”

According to CoinGecko, before the crisis, TRU was trading at $0.1611, experiencing a 4.1% increase in the last 24 hours before crashing to $0.00007923.

The Truebit token contract is listed at 0xf65B5C5104c4faFD4b709d9D60a185eAE063276c. This detail is significant as the similarity in names between “Truebit (TRU)” and “TrueFi (TRU)” has caused confusion, affecting execution and risk management systems reliant on symbol mappings.

Trading Desk Perspective

For trading desks, the pertinent message is not simply that “TRU is down 99.95%.” Rather, the critical insight is that a labeled purchase contract, potentially involving treasury ETH, fee channels, or sales mechanisms, is at the heart of the suspected 8,535 ETH loss. This situation poses heightened counterparty risk for any trading venues still quoting TRU and amplifies operational threats for any strategies solely based on ticker symbols, especially considering TRU's known history of symbol confusion with TrueFi.

As this situation unfolds, market makers are likely to widen or suspend quotes until the true nature of the ETH loss—whether related to treasury management, user flows, or labeling errors—can be definitively traced back to a specific transaction and a designated Truebit-controlled signer set.