Hacker Returns $3.6 Million Crypto to dForce
Decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol dForce announced on Monday that the hacker responsible for the theft of $3.6 million from the platform had returned the assets. The DeFi aggregator confirmed in a Twitter post that the returned funds would be distributed among the affected customers at a later date.
1/5 On Feb 13, 2023, the exploited funds were fully returned to our multi-sig on both Arbitrum and Optimism, a perfect ending for all.
All impacted users will be made whole, we will announce the details for distribution of the funds over the next few days.
— dForce (@dForcenet) February 13, 2023
Attack on Arbitrum and Optimism
Last week, dForce suffered a smart contract exploit which resulted in the loss of users’ funds. The attacker targeted the platform’s wstETHCRV gauge vault on Arbitrum and Optimism networks, emptying all the funds in the wallets. The DeFi protocol suspended all activities on the platform following the attack to safeguard the vaults against further damage.
Data on Etherscan and Arbiscan revealed that the attacker transferred 1237 and 1127 of Ethereum (ETH) worth around $1.8 and $1.6 million, respectively, to the wallet address 0x9d82033bb36217b44567edc635be926f74d1b76f on February 13, 2023.
White Hat Hacker
dForce contacted the attacker immediately after the attack, and the two parties agreed on the return of the funds, making the hacker a white hat hacker. The DeFi protocol will offer the hacker a bounty bonus and drop all ongoing investigations and legal action against them.
This marks the second time that the DeFi protocol has recovered stolen assets from attackers following an exploit. In April 2020, dForce lost $25 million to hackers, but the assets were later returned to the platform.
Hack Victims
dForce is among several hack victims to recover stolen assets from exploiters. Last year, cryptocurrency exchange Binance helped recover part of the stolen assets from DeFi protocol Curve Finance when the hacker attempted to move the funds through the exchange. The exchange froze the user’s account and retrieved about $450,000 from the $750,000 stolen from the platform.
The return of the stolen funds by the hacker is good news for affected customers and the DeFi protocol. As the DeFi industry continues to grow, it is important for users to remain vigilant and protect their assets against potential attacks.
