Hackers behind the $196 million exploit on the Euler Finance lending protocol have recovered the majority of stolen assets, according to on-chain data.
In a transaction on March 25, the exploit yielded 51,000 Ether (ETH) which is worth about $88 million at the time of writing. A second transfer of 7,737 ETH was made on the same day, worth more than $13 million. Earlier, on March 18, hackers sent 3,000 ETH to the protocol, worth almost $5.4 million at the time. The exploiters still control some of the stolen assets.
euler exploiter has generated 51k ETH ($90m)
https://t.co/RooIjugGsd
– eking (@eking0x) March 25, 2023
On March 13, hackers carried out a series of transactions that stole nearly $196 million from the protocol in a flash loan attack, which is being called the biggest DeFi hack of 2023 so far. The stolen assets include 8.8 million DAI, 849,000 wBTC, 85 million stETH, and 34 million USDC stablecoins.
A few days after the hack, the exploiter sent an on-chain message to Euler requesting agreement with the protocol. “We want to make this easy for everyone who is affected. We don’t intend to keep what is not ours. Let’s make communication safe. Let’s agree,” he said.
Related: Euler attack causes locked tokens, losses in 11 DeFi protocols, including Balancer
The protocol previously tried to negotiate with the exploiters, asking them to return 90% of the stolen funds within 24 hours, and if not, they would face legal action. No response was received, and 24 hours later, Euler offered a $1 reward for any information leading to the capture of the exploit.
Other transactions have been made by hackers, including the transfer of 1,000 nETH, worth about $1.65 million at the time, through the sanctioned Tornado Cash crypto mixer.
According to blockchain analytics company PeckShield, around 100 ETH sent to a wallet address likely owned by one of the victims. The on-chain message sent by the previous wallet address asked the attacker to return his “live deposit.”