Some victims of the $48 million KyberSwap hack are undoubtedly waiting anxiously for the DeFi platform attacker to make his next move.
However, others appear to be taking a more proactive approach: speaking directly to the exploiter via the Ethereum blockchain.
“Hello! You did a great job, you are a great man!” One person wrote a message overnight that was attached to a transaction.
“I’m drained for over 155,000 USDC, you can check my wallet. Could you please send some $ to help my family? I can transfer the money to any wallet you want, please help me! :(.”
Other messages are much more formal: “Hello Mr/Mrs! I was LP [liquidity provider] At [Arbitrum] — 259809.7 DAI.”
“I would like to negotiate and ask how much would you be willing to take as a bounty? I believe code is law and it’s entirely up to you. Thanks in advance!”
KyberSwap aggregates DeFi liquidity into a single pool and offers services such as decentralized exchanges and wallets to provide end users with instant token swaps through a network of smart contracts.
Chain watchers first noticed something amiss with KyberSwap on Wednesday evening. Millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies were suddenly siphoned from KyberSwap contracts deployed to Ethereum, Polygon, Coinbase’s Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, with the latter two hit the hardest.
A complicated series of flash loan attacks and other targeted exploits had resulted in token liquidity pools being drained.
KyberSwap responded by asking users to withdraw funds from the platform, quickly withdrawing approximately $77 million from the platform. According to DeFiLlama, there are currently less than $8 million held in KyberSwap.
So far, the supply remains at the hacker’s various addresses. After the attack subsided, the hacker initiated a transaction with the following message:
“Dear Kyberswap developers, employees, DAO members and LPs, negotiations will begin in a few hours when I am fully rested.”
That was about a day and 18 hours ago. Nothing since then.
Ethereum allows adding messages to the input data field when sending transactions. This one cost about $2.
While some messages tell the hacker that he could keep some of the crypto if he returns the rest, it’s unclear if there are notes like “If the money is gone, my kids won’t be able to go to school anymore because they won’t have any money left.” “Help me please” are legitimate stories from real victims.
Some messages are more lighthearted: One says, “Hello. Congratulations on the goal, that’s a crazy thing. You look like a smart, arrogant and funny guy. Could we talk via Telegram or otherwise? :)”
Another: “Hello legend, please send me 1 million to become the top G for life, thank you, I love you.”
There are others who offer advice: “I don’t know what you want to do next, but just want to remind you that stablecoins like USDC have an address blocking feature in the smart contract code.” Some apparently even sent tips, including some for 0.001 ETH ($2.06) and one for 0.0000069 ETH ($0.014).
Hackers often wait days, months, or even years before attempting to launder stolen cryptocurrencies. Sometimes the hacker returns the money after taking 10% or 20%, playing the whole thing off as a cruel trick.
Who knows where the Kyber case will end.
In any case, it wasn’t bad enough that Ethereum network participants had to cryptographically verify the integrity of CryptoDickButts and Pixelverse Poops.
Now they have to forever guarantee nonsense like “Could you teach me your senpai ways?” “I too would like to create generational wealth in a matter of seconds,” remains unadulterated and forever recorded in the blockchain. Great.
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