Key takeaways:
- A hacker who took advantage of the decentralized-finance protocol Safemoon has promised to restore 80% of the $7.1 million worth of stolen money.
- The vulnerability was exploited last month when a hacker used a bug in the smart contracts to deplete Safemoon’s liquidity pool.
A decentralised finance (DeFi) technology called SafeMoon is based on BNB Chain. Hackers took 27,000 BNB worth roughly $8.9 million on March 28. According to a blockchain statement posted on April 18 by SafeMoon, the hacker who stole $8.9 million in BNB has agreed to return 80% of the money.
The SafeMoon community expressed its displeasure with the lack of substantive updates on the situation in the weeks that followed.
For instance, a recent post declaring “New #SAFEMOON app builds submitted!” received criticism for being overly ambitious and for serving as a diversion to hide the hack. John Karony, CEO of SafeMoon, was criticised for his avoidant and repetitious pleas for patience.
The on-chain message states that SafeMoon has consented to give the attacker 20% of the crypto they have stolen, which is equal to around $1.8 million, as a “white hat bounty.”
In addition, the business decided against pressing charges against the hacker after “careful consideration of the circumstances.” According to the private note, SafeMooon thinks it’s best for the platform and community to let the issue go.
On the same day, the team replied and requested the attacker provide a Telegram handle where they might be reached. The attacker provided an anonymous Outlook email address rather than a Telegram handle. Next, the group announced, “Email message sent. 12:33 UTC.”
Prior to SafeMoon’s recent disclosure that its liquidity pool (LP) had been compromised, it was reported that Jake Paul and Soulja Boy had sponsored the project. SafeMoon acknowledged it is acting to address the problem as soon as possible but gave no further details about the attack.
The two parties settled on paying the hacker a 20% bug reward. Developers of Safemoon also affirmed that the hacker won’t be prosecuted.
It is significant to note that over the previous day, the value of Safemoon’s SFM token has increased by almost 2.8%.
Given the current state of affairs in the DeFi space, safemoon’s return of cash appears to be an encouraging development for the community.
With the continued growth and attraction of hackers to the cryptocurrency industry, the need for protecting these platforms becomes increasingly more critical. It is uncertain how the sector will respond to this most recent attack given how disturbed the DeFi ecosystem has previously been.
In the most recent high-profile security breaches in April alone, SushiSwap lost $3.3 million due to a security flaw and Yearn Finance was Hacked For Over $100M.
