Euler Finance, a prominent hacker group, announced that it has “no intention of keeping what is not ours” in a statement released on its website. The statement suggests that the group is not motivated by malicious intents, but instead aims to expose vulnerabilities in financial systems and technology. With this announcement, Euler Finance aims to dispel fears of its hacking activities and gain a reputation as a responsible cybersecurity organization.
Euler Finance Hacker Offers to Return Stolen Crypto After On-Chain Ultimatum
On Monday, the hacker responsible for the nearly $200 million attack on Euler Finance reached out to an Ethereum address linked to the DeFi platform, offering to enter into dialogue after Euler had issued an on-chain ultimatum demanding the return of the stolen funds. The message read, “We want to make this easy on all those affected. No intention of keeping what is not ours. Setting up secure communication. Let us come to an agreement.” Euler Finance confirmed receiving the message but did not comment further.
On March 13, Euler Finance suffered an attack by an exploiter using a flash loan exploit that drained around $196.9 million worth of various cryptocurrencies, including DAI stablecoin, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Staked Ethereum (stETH), and USDC stablecoin. Days after the attack, Euler Finance offered the hacker a deal to keep 10% of the $200 million stolen if they returned the rest within 24 hours. When that didn’t happen, Euler Finance publicly announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the hacker’s arrest and the return of all funds.
Apparently undeterred by the $1 million reward, the attacker sent funds tied to the Euler exploit to the Tornado Cash mixing service on March 16. Ten transactions that totaled 1,000 ETH or about $1.78 million today were involved.
In 2022, the largest year for crypto hacks and exploits, approximately $3.8 billion was stolen across DeFi protocols, centralized services, and more, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Hackers linked to North Korea were allegedly behind $1.7 billion of the attacks.
After the Euler Finance attack, Chainaylsis reported that some of the ETH was sent to a wallet tied to last year’s Axie Infinity Ronin bridge hack, which North Korea’s state-sponsored Lazarus hacking group is believed to have conducted. This may indicate the involvement of Lazarus in the Euler attack, although it could also indicate an unrelated attacker’s attempt at misdirection.