Toby Hoenisch, co-founder and CEO of defunct Singapore-based blockchain startup TenX, could be behind the infamous hack of The DAO – the decentralized VC fund on the Etherium blockchain – in 2016, claimed crypto journalist Laura Shin in her new book. The hack resulted in the theft of 3.6 million ether (ETH), which was worth US$70 million at the time.
Toby Hoenisch, co-founder and CEO of TenX / Source: TenX
In December 2021, TenX said that it would discontinue its services and shut down.
In an article published on Forbes, Shin claimed that Hoenisch had raised US$80 million in 2017 and was operating from Singapore when The DAO hack took place.
The Austrian programmer appears to have rejected the charges. In an email response to Shin’s queries, Hoenisch said, “Your statement and conclusion is factually inaccurate.”
The DAO was launched in April 2016, after what is considered to be one of the largest crowdfunding campaigns. It raised US$150 million worth of ETH through a token sale. But a couple of months later, hackers exploited a loophole in The DAO’s code to divert one-third of its funds into a new account.
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Following a backlash from the community, Ethereum operators were forced to hard-fork the blockchain network to restore all funds to the original contract. This led to the split of the Ethereum network into two, with each having its own cryptocurrency. The original unforked blockchain continued as Ethereum Classic.
The incident also led to the premature demise of The DAO with its tokens, known as Dao, getting delisted from top cryptocurrency exchanges.
Editing by Collin Furtado and Eileen C. Ang
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