KyberSwap hacker opens door for negotiations after $45 million exploit

The KyberSwap hacker has proven a willingness to barter after exploiting the decentralized trade for round $45 million, based on on-chain messages.

The attacker publicly messaged KyberSwap, stating negotiations would begin shortly after satisfactory “relaxation:”

“Pricey Kyberswap Builders, Workers, DAO members, and LPs, Negotiations will begin in just a few hours when I’m absolutely rested. Thanks.”

The hack

In a Nov. 23 assertion, Kyber Community confirmed that KyberSwap, its flagship decentralized trade product, was exploited for an undisclosed quantity.

“As a precautionary measure, we strongly advise all customers to promptly withdraw their funds. Our staff is diligently investigating the state of affairs, and we decide to holding you knowledgeable with common updates,” Kyber Community wrote.

Nonetheless, blockchain safety agency Cyvers Alerts estimated the theft to be round $45 million throughout completely different chains, together with $20 million on Arbitrum, $15 million on Optimism, $7.5 million on Ethereum, $2 million on Polygon, and $315,000 on Base.

The agency added that the attacker was funded by the digital cryptocurrency mixer Twister Money.

Reason behind assault?

Whereas the reason for the hack stays elusive, Adam Cochran, a accomplice at Cinneamhain Ventures, prompt that the assault was a “flash loans and a few form of math/rounding concern.” He added:

“Every [transaction] is beginning with an Ethereum stability coming in, looped mint/redeem/swap.”

Doug Colkitt, the founding father of Ambient Finance, a decentralized buying and selling protocol, described the hack as “simply essentially the most advanced and punctiliously engineered sensible contract exploit” he has ever seen.

In an in depth submit on social media platform X (previously Twitter), Colkitt explained:

“Very first thing to notice is that this exploit is restricted to Kyber’s implementation of concentrated liquidity. There’s no motive to consider that different respected concentrated liquidity dexes, like Ambient or Uniswap, are in danger from this exploit. (Although Kyber forks clearly are).”

In the meantime, the theft considerably impacted the entire worth of property locked on KyberSwap, plummeting to roughly $13.61 million from $84.9 million, as per Defillama data.

Moreover, Kyber Community’s native token, KNC, is down greater than 2% within the reporting interval to $0.72525 as of press time, based on CryptoSlate’s data.