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Treasure DAO

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Summary

Treasure DAO is an Arbitrum-based NFT gaming and metaverse ecosystem centered around the MAGIC token, founded in 2021 by John Patten and Karel Vuong. In March 2022, its NFT marketplace suffered a critical smart contract exploit in which attackers purchased approximately $1.4 million worth of NFTs at zero cost by passing a zero-quantity parameter to the buyItem() function, bypassing all payment validation. The project has since undergone significant restructuring, including the shutdown of its proprietary zkSync-based Treasure Chain in May 2025, mass layoffs, and a strategic pivot toward AI agent infrastructure.

Connected Entities

1 entities
Organizations
□Treasure DAO
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    Timeline(9 events)

    September 2021

    Treasure DAO founded by John Patten and Karel Vuong, inspired by the Loot NFT project. The MAGIC token is launched as the ecosystem's native currency.

    Gate.io Learn

    2022

    Treasure DAO raises $3 million in a funding round led by 1kx, with participation from Merit Circle, AcadArena, Ready Player DAO, and Axie Infinity co-founder Jiho.

    BeinCrypto

    3 March 2022

    Treasure Marketplace exploited via a zero-quantity bug in the buyItem() smart contract function. 153 NFTs — primarily Smol Brains and Legions — are stolen with an estimated value of ~$1.4 million. The marketplace is immediately frozen.

    DappRadar

    3 March 2022

    Some attackers begin voluntarily returning stolen NFTs within hours of the exploit. CoinDesk reports roughly half of stolen NFTs were returned. Co-founder John Patten pledges personal compensation.

    CoinDesk

    June 2022

    Treasure DAO launches Trove, a redesigned NFT marketplace replacing the exploited Treasure Marketplace, supporting both ecosystem-native MAGIC-priced listings and general ETH-priced collections.

    CoinGecko

    16 September 2022

    Treasure DAO completes a $3.5 million MAGIC token sale at an $80 million fully diluted valuation, led by Digital Strategies Guild with participation from Arbitrum and others.

    TokenInsight

    December 2024

    Treasure DAO launches Treasure Chain, a proprietary Layer 2 blockchain built on the zkSync Elastic Chain ecosystem, migrating from Arbitrum.

    Blockworks

    April 2025

    Treasure DAO announces major restructuring: at least 15 contributors laid off, co-founder Karel Vuong departs, game publishing operations terminated. Treasury reported at ~$2.4M stablecoins with $11.3M quarterly expenses against $40K quarterly revenue.

    Blockworks

    30 May 2025

    Treasure Chain mainnet shuts down approximately five months after launch, following ratification of governance proposal TIP-52. Users required to bridge out all holdings. Chain operational costs of ~$450,000/year cited as unsustainable.

    PlayToEarn
    Provenance & Audit Trail
    Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain15 Wayback Archives

    Decision Log

    This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (5 events). 15 of 17 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

    full audit log →version history →

    model: claude-sonnet-4-6

    generated: 6/1/2026, 5:49:44 PM

    last updated: 7/27/2026, 11:08:22 PM

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