A hacker who used TornadoCash to steal $45 million from decentralized exchange aggregator KyberSwap has reached out to negotiate with the team behind the protocol. The perpetrator said negotiations would take place when they “were fully rested.”
A hacker who stole $45 million in Ethereum and other tokens from KyberSwap on Wednesday said they are willing to negotiate. A type of dynamic market maker, KyberSwap helps decentralized finance users access liquidity across many blockchains.
KyberSwap Hack Started Off a Chain
Their exploit followed an $85 million attack on the HECO chain, which crypto mogul Justin Sun merged with the TRON blockchain in 2022. On Wednesday, a hacker also stole funds from two hot wallet owners by crypto exchange HTX, formerly Huobi.
The CTO of blockchain security firm Cyvers, Meir Dolev, suspects the same party attacked HECO and HTX. The HTX hack stole $2.5 million in Ethereum, $7.3 million Tether (USDT), $1.8 million US Dollar Coin (USDC), and $62,200 worth of Chainlink (LINK) tokens. Sun confirmed the hack and said HTX, formerly Huobi Global, would “fully” compensate affected customers.
HTX Links to Binance Grow More Troubling
Kaiko Research recently highlighted concerning connections between Binance and HTX. The latter sold $350 million for USDC in July and then transferred the USDC to Binance, which recently made headlines for its connections to Hamas. Poloniex, an exchange linked with Sun, settled with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in May for providing “economic benefit” to 232 sanctioned entities.
Kaiko HTX and Binance. Source: Kaiko Research
In October, 14% of HTX’s reserves comprised staked Tether (stUSDT), a token it gives some customers of its JustLend product. The concentration of stUSDT spooked institutional investors, who withdrew much of their holdings in October. It may also compromise Sun’s ability to compensate for lost assets in the recent hack.
Binance: Is This the End? Source: YouTube
Sun is facing a lawsuit from US regulators for the alleged wash trading of crypto tokens. Former Sun rival and Binance boss Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to helping fund terrorist activity.
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