KyberSwap hacker promises to outline potential treaty in coming days

Quick Take

  • The hacker encoded a message into blockchain data, promising a statement on a potential deal on November 30.

The hacker responsible for draining $47 million from decentralized exchange protocol KyberSwap last week pledged to release a statement on a potential deal with victims later this week.

The attacker, whose identity remains unknown, encoded a message into an Ethereum transaction late on November 28, promising to release a statement on a “treaty” on November 30.

“I said I was willing to negotiate. In return, I have received (mostly) threats, deadlines, and general unfriendliness from the executive team. That's ok, I don't mind,” they said.

“Under the assumption that I am treated with further hostility, we can reschedule for a later date, when we all feel more civil. You need only say the word,” they continued. “If not, we proceed as planned on Nov. 30.”

A $47 million exploit

The ominous message comes roughly a week after $47 million was suspiciously drained form KyberSwap’s Elastic Pools liquidity solution. KyberSwap advised all users to withdraw their funds in the immediate aftermath of the incident. It has since offered up a 10% bounty to whoever was responsible for the exploit, who had already left a message encoded in blockchain data stating that negotiations would begin once they were “fully rested.”

Yesterday, the team said in a statement that it had managed to recover $4.7 million.


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About Author

Ryan Weeks is deals editor at the The Block, focused on fundraising, M&A and institutional trends in the crypto space, among other things. He is particularly interested in investigative work — so please send tips! Ryan previously worked at Financial News, Dow Jones as a fintech correspondent in London. Prior to that, he wrote for several different publications, including Sifted, AltFi and Wired. Beyond journalism, Ryan is a keen reader and writer. He enjoys all things active, especially running, rugby, climbing and tennis.