A recent attack that saved $197 million from Euler Finance is being called the biggest decentralized finance (DeFi) hack of 2023 so far. However, this may not last much longer as the hacker reportedly has a change of heart.
On March 18, approximately 3,000 Ether (ETH) ($5.4 million) were returned to Euler Finance’s distribution address from the Euler Finance hacker’s address. Blockchain investigators PeckShield identified three transactions used to send funds.
https://t.co/4OBksAu9od pic.twitter.com/Zb3MIyex2f
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) March 18, 2023
Cointelegraph confirmed that the hacker transferred 1,000 ETH per transaction to Euler’s deployer account. However, the likelihood that the hackers will recover the entire $197 million loot remains slim, as no further exit transactions have been recorded at the time of writing.
On March 16, Euler Finance announced a $1 million reward for tracking down the hackers and retrieving the funds.
Today, the Euler Foundation launched a $1M reward in the hope that this will provide an additional incentive for information that leads to the arrest of the attackers of the Euler protocol and the return of all the funds extracted by the attackers.
— Euler Labs (@eulerfinance) March 15, 2023
The exploit was able to extract $197 million through multiple transactions and then use a multichain bridge to transfer funds from the BNB Chain to Ethereum.
related: Euler Finance was hacked despite 10 audits in 2 years, says the CEO
Shortly after the $1 million prize was announced, the stolen funds were transferred to the Tornado Cash crypto mixer.
#PeckShieldAlert @eulerfinance exploiter on the move
~1,000 $ETH to Tornado Cash via intermediary address 0xc66d…c9ahttps://t.co/LAkY66YpoF pic.twitter.com/0XhQV1nbgn— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 16, 2023
Euler Finance demands that hackers withdraw 90% of their funds within 24 hours to avoid jail time.