KyberSwap Offers Hacker 10% Bounty for Return of Stolen Funds

By: Eva Baxter

KyberSwap, the decentralized exchange, has announced a 10% bounty reward to the anonymous hacker who stole $46 million from the platform. This offer was made as part of a public note aiming for the return of the majority of stolen assets.

Earlier this week, KyberSwap alerted its users about a significant security breach, reporting the theft of around $20 million in Wrapped Ether (wETH), $7 million in wrapped Lido-staked Ether (wstETH), and $4 million in Arbitrum (ARB) tokens. The hacker shifted the captured assets across multiple chains including Arbitrum, Optimism, Ethereum, Polygon, and Base shortly after the theft.

The perpetrator then addressed a message to KyberSwap's team and community, indicating plans for negotiation to be commenced after they had rested. KyberSwap's response appealed for the return of 90% of the stolen values, promising a bounty equivalent to 10% of the stolen amount in exchange. The exchange called out to the hacker to cut to the chase for the betterment of all parties involved.

The narrative from an expert on decentralized finance (DeFi) suggests that the stealthy hacker utilized an 'infinite money glitch' that led to the exfiltration of funds using a highly intricate and heavily engineered smart contract exploit. The exploitation technique was implemented on multiple KyberSwap pools leading to the extraction of $46 million worth cryptocurrency.