Key takeaways:
- KyberSwap’s team had to reduce its workforce by half to maintain business operations after the November $48.8 million hack.
- The DeFi company announced that it will build a “voluntary database” to assist leaving workers in finding new positions in the Web3 industry.
KyberSwap’s decentralized financial protocol team had to reduce its workforce by half to maintain business operations after the November $48.8 million hack.
However, they have also cut 50% of their staff, Victor Tran, CEO of Kyber Network, stated on December 24. It was a heartbreaking decision to split ways with so many of the team members.
Nonetheless, the DeFi company announced that it would build a “voluntary database” to assist leaving workers in finding new positions in the Web3 industry.
According to Tran, Kyber Network has put a temporary halt to its KYBERAI project and liquidity protocol activities in order to reduce the rate of capital spending.
Nevertheless, the CEO emphasized that KyberSwap’s Aggregator and Limit Order operations are still part of the company’s primary business. Tran continued:
“Moreover, we will soon be launching our Zap API, an innovative development that will enable dApps, wallets, and other projects to become the most convenient gateways for their users to access DeFi liquidity protocols,”
However, the company states that, for the time being, it is trying to compensate affected clients for the November exploit.
To help with that, Kyber Network launched its Treasury Grants Program on December 20. The program aims to disburse funds (in US dollar stablecoins) by February 1, 2024. It will be necessary for affected customers to register for reimbursement between January 11 and January 23, 2024.
Users affected by the main KyberSwap exploit are estimated to have a reference value of almost $49 million; however, Kyber stated that affected users will only receive 60% of this amount. After the initial attack, front-run bots were used to steal an extra $6.6 million.
At first, the Kyber team attempted to work out a reward agreement with the hacker, but they insisted on having total control over the business, including all of Kyber’s assets and KyberDAO, the company’s governance framework.
The hacker offered to purchase the business at a reasonable price, but it’s likely that the Kyber team turned down the offer.