Summary
Gala Games is a blockchain gaming platform founded in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer and Wright Thurston whose GALA token has been at the center of two major controversies: a 2023 civil lawsuit alleging Thurston stole 8.6 billion GALA tokens (~$130M) from company wallets, and a separate May 2024 smart contract exploit in which an unauthorized minter minted 5 billion tokens worth approximately $200M. Both co-founders have filed competing civil suits alleging misappropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars, while Thurston also faces an unrelated SEC fraud action over a separate crypto mining venture.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 3 more
Timeline(14 events)
2019-01-01
Gala Games (Blockchain Game Partners, Inc.) founded by Eric Schiermeyer and Wright Thurston
2021-02-01
Alleged unauthorized transfer of 8.6 billion GALA tokens from company wallets by Wright Thurston, per Schiermeyer's later lawsuit
2021-11-26
GALA token reaches all-time high of approximately $0.84, peak market capitalization in billions of dollars
2022-02-01
Gala Games introduces Project GYRI / GalaChain, an independent Layer-1 blockchain for the ecosystem
2022-09-01
Alleged liquidation of stolen GALA tokens begins; Thurston allegedly sells via Coinbase and Kraken through 43 wallets, per lawsuit
2022-12-31
GALA price has declined over 97% from its all-time high, closing year around $0.017
2023-03-03
SEC files fraud charges against Wright Thurston and Green United LLC for alleged $18M crypto mining scam unrelated to Gala
2023-05-31
Alleged liquidation of stolen GALA tokens ends, per Schiermeyer lawsuit; Thurston alleged to have netted approximately $130M
2023-08-31
Eric Schiermeyer and Wright Thurston each file civil lawsuits against the other in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah; Schiermeyer seeks $130M+ recovery, Thurston seeks $750M
2023-09-04
GALA token drops approximately 18.5% on the week as public reporting on the dual lawsuits triggers market FUD
2024-05-20
External attacker mints 5 billion GALA tokens via compromised minter private key; sells ~600M tokens for ~$21-29M on Uniswap; GALA drops ~20% intraday
2024-05-20
Gala Games freezes exploited wallet within 45 minutes; CEO Schiermeyer states 'We messed up our internal controls' and confirms FBI and DOJ engagement
2024-08-01
Utah District Court denies True North / Thurston motion for preliminary relief that would have replaced Schiermeyer as CEO
2026-04-30
Gala community vote approves disinflationary tokenomics update with fee-sharing and permanent token burns
Decision Log
- hash: FYJSk432bgRRWedWSAUsErRWehArB3nUPYZ3BfMofKff
- hash: 3htsLT1JTUBEdjUzvSz9hFEpGaodnj3ReCiMfJrgVLYm
- hash: F29XkN7sUmUAPUUnXLAGDuzF1hR4S3Ys9ekRdG9XjJN2
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-5
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:32 AM
last updated: 6/14/2026, 11:16:05 PM
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