The hacker responsible for the $196 million attack on Euler Finance has begun transferring funds to crypto mixer Tornado Cash, just hours after a $1 million reward was launched to discover the identity of the hacker.
Blockchain analytics firm PeckShield tweeted on March 16 that the exploits behind the lightning loan attack on Ethereum’s noncustodial lending protocol “continue to progress.”
The exploiter transferred 1,000 Ether (ETH), approximately $1.65 million, through the sanctioned 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
It came just a few hours after Euler Labs tweeted which launched a $1 million reward for information leading “to the arrest of the attackers of the Euler protocol and the return of all funds.”
Just the day before, Euler sent an on-chain message to the exploiter’s address, warning that he would open a reward “that leads to your arrest and the return of all funds” if 90% are not returned within 24 hours.
The movement of funds to crypto mixers may indicate that hackers are not influenced by Euler’s amnesty offer.
Peckshield noted that about 100 ETH, worth $165,202 at the time of writing, was 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 the “live deposit.”
WOW!@eulerfinance Exploiter returns 100 $ETH for some people asking for their money back because it’s their life savingshttps://t.co/Gz9aCUZB0H pic.twitter.com/DhZBenqtuS
– Wazz (@WazzCrypto) March 16, 2023
This resulted in many other victims sending messages to the address in the hope of generating funds as well.
related: Euler attack causes locked tokens, losses in 11 DeFi protocols, including Balancer
One message stated they “are twenty-six families from rural areas without unemployment,” who lost “a million USDT in total,” adding the funds in the protocol as “saving lives from decades of work in factories.”
Another victim appears to have sent messages to the attacker congratulating him on his “big win” and saying he was investing funds into Euler who “desperately” needs a house.
“My husband is going to kill me if I can’t pay for the house […] Is there anything [sic] can you help me I don’t know what to tell my husband,” he wrote.
According to on-chain data, the $196 million stolen from Euler includes Dai (DAI), USD Coin (USDC), staked ETH and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).