French Court Absolves $8.5M Platypus Hackers, Labelled as 'Ethical Hackers'

By: Eliza Bennet

In a surprising turn of events, two brothers implicated in a heist involving $8.5 million from the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus have been set free by a French court. The duo, identified as Mohammed and Benamar M., successfully argued their case of being 'ethical hackers', thereby getting all charges against them dropped.

The incident dates back to February 16, when the hackers managed to drain and move a substantial $8.5 million from the Platypus through a flash loan attack. The abrupt dispersion forced the protocol to momentarily halt their trading services as they searched for a solution. With the assistance of Binance's security team and independent crypto investigators, the illicitly gained funds were traced back to the duo.

During the ongoing legal proceedings, Platypus was unfortunately hit with another flash loan exploit, leading to an additional $2.2 million loss. Despite this setback, it was also reported that Platypus Finance had managed to recover 90% of assets lost in an earlier exploit.