Phenom Poker has confirmed it was targeted in a hack on Monday, with the site remaining offline as the team works to resolve the issue.
Players trying to access the client had been met with a message stating, “The site is under maintenance,” along with the following statement:
“Today we got attacked by a sophisticated group who were able to compromise a team member's machine. Unfortunately, a private key was compromised, and the hacker was able to move some site funds before we were able to act.”
That update was revised late Wednesday night to read: “We have been able to pinpoint the exact area of the compromise and have made sure that all systems are safe and ready for use again.”
The plan is for the Phenom site to be operational again at 10am ET on April 4. Cash games will be available immediately, while MTTs “will not be available… but will return soon.”
Phenom: No player funds affected
Phenom says no player funds were affected, with all balances held in individual user wallets beyond the company’s control.
In a message on Phenom’s Discord channel, CEO Matt Valeo wrote, “Although this event is frustrating… I’m personally glad to see the system working – players were able to control and withdraw their funds even while our app was offline.”
All tournaments that were running during the outage will be paid out based on ICM.
Users on the site’s Discord channel reported that $94,267 in USDC was stolen, and Valeo confirmed the stolen funds came from the Phenom Poker token liquidity pool – a reserve used to facilitate trading of the site’s token.
Phenom says it plans to restore the liquidity pool over the next few days and move to an in-game currency (currently referred to as CHIP) to eliminate holding stablecoins in smart contracts, removing another potential vulnerability. Player reserves will remain visible on the blockchain.
Phenom Poker is represented by a large stable of ambassadors, including Brian Rast, Huck Seed, Viktor Blom, and Phil Laak. Phenom’s X account has not yet issued a public statement, and none of its ambassadors have commented publicly.
PokerOrg has reached out to Phenom Poker for comment.
