A message of gratitude was sent to the hacker who was responsible for the theft of $27 million in cryptocurrency from the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Penpie by a fellow criminal.
Penpie experienced an exploit on September 3, resulting in the loss of digital assets valued at $27 million.
The deposits and withdrawals were suspended by the DeFi platform in response. The Penpie hacker transferred $7 million in assets to the Tornado Cash crypto mixer less than one day after the breach.
A crypto mixer anonymizes fund transfers by combining digital asset transactions with a vast quantity of other funds. Although they are intended for privacy purposes, hackers frequently employ these services to conceal their illicit assets.
A Fellow Infiltrator Commends Pendle Exploiter
In March 2023, the exploiter responsible for the $195 million flash loan attack on Euler Finance sent a onchain message to the Penpie hacker following the breach.
The decision to refrain from returning the stolen funds was commended by a fellow criminal. They composed the following:
“Good job bro. I didn’t see a hack like this for a while. I’m happy you kept all the money and didn’t let these bastards get back one dollar of what you took. You won, they lost. Good job.”
Nevertheless, the Euler Finance intruder was unable to achieve the same result. The lending protocol sent a onchain message to the criminal on March 15, 2023, offering them the opportunity to retain approximately $20 million if 90% of the stolen funds were returned.
The hacker was also threatened by the protocol, which stated that a $1 million reward would be offered to anyone who could provide information that could result in an arrest.
The Euler Finance intruder returned all recoverable funds on April 4. This implies that the protocol was able to recover 90% of the hacked quantity. Subsequently, the Euler Foundation discontinued its $1 million reward campaign to apprehend the perpetrator.
August Witnesses a 215% Increase in Phishing
In August, crypto phishing schemes resulted in the loss of approximately $63 million to more than 9,000 victims. Although the number of victims decreased in comparison to July, the quantity of money stolen increased by 215%.
The majority of the taken funds were the result of a single, extensive attack that resulted in a $55 million loss.
On August 20, a malicious transaction was signed by the proprietor of a wallet, resulting in the transfer of ownership of 55 million Dai. This allowed the scammers to escape with the funds.
