PAID Network (PAID)

Note: The cause is contested. The team attributed the incident to a compromised private key; some on-chain observers alleged it resembled an insider rug pull. This entry presents both.

Summary

PAID Network was an Ethereum-based dApp/token project led by Kyle Chassé. On March 5, 2021, an attacker who had obtained the original deployer's private key used the contract's upgrade function to enable burning and re-minting, then minted 59,471,745 PAID tokens and sold about 2.5 million on Uniswap for roughly 2,040 ETH (~$3 million) before the team pulled liquidity. PAID's price fell sharply (reported ~85–88%). ^[1][2]

Disputed cause

The team's post-mortem attributed the breach to a leaked private key (later said to have been exposed in a third-party repository), not malicious insiders, and the project relaunched a v2 token to invalidate the attacker's mint. However, observers including @WARONRUGS pointed to an ownership transfer of the proxy contract shortly before the exploit and alleged an insider attack. The project had been audited by CertiK. ^[1][2]

Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.