On Monday, the attacker that made away with over $197 million from Euler Finance last week sent an on-chain message to the company’s Ethereum address, offering to initiate negotiations. The hacker’s latest move comes a few days after Euler Finance issued an ultimatum demanding they return the funds.
The attacker’s message stated that they had no intention of keeping what wasn’t theirs, so they wanted to come to an agreement with Euler Finance to ensure all affected were compensated. The hacker added that they would set up secure communication for the negotiations.
The Euler Finance Attack
CypherMindHQ.com Artificial Intelligence Crypto Trading System - Surpass the competition with this cutting-edge AI system! Utilize the prowess of innovative algorithms and amplify your crypto trading strategies with CypherMindHQ. Learn more today!
Last Tuesday, Euler Finance, a DeFi protocol for lending and borrowing crypto, suffered an exploit that left the platform counting losses of up to $197 million. That figure included $18.4 million in Wrapped Bitcoin, $8.8 million in DAI, $135.7 million in Staked Ethereum, and $33.7 million in USDC.
Two days after the attack, the company delivered an on-chain message to the attacker with an offer to retain 10% of the stolen funds. However, the hacker failed to reply, prompting Euler Finance to announce a $1 million bounty for information that could help arrest them and recover the funds.
But the attacker seemed unmoved by the $1 million reward as they opted to transfer the stolen funds to coin mixer Tornado Cash a day after the announcement. In addition, the hacker sent 100 ETH worth $171,000 to an address connected to a previous attack executed on Ronin Bridge last March.
Surprisingly, the thief returned around 70 ETH to an Euler Finance user who sent them an on-chain message claiming that their investment fund in the DeFi protocol was their entire life savings.
Price Analysis of EUL
Although the exploit led to Euler Finance’s native token (EUL) declining last week, the crypto asset has since recovered the losses, and it’s up 33% in the past 24 hours to trade at $3.49, according to data from CoinGecko.
Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis reports that the attack on Euler Finance is the biggest this year. Previously, the firm revealed that 2022 saw the most crypto attacks than any other year. Over $3.8 billion was stolen from various DeFi protocols, with North Korean crime organizations like the Lazarus accounting for $1.7 billion.
