Exploited KyberSwap Disses Hacker Request in Rare Revival Plot

After the unrealistic demands from its exploiter to take over the Kyber Network, the exploited decentralized exchange KyberSwap has made a different pivot in its revival push. The exchange said it will reimburse users who were exposed to the security breach recorded last month.

KyberSwap Shares Update on Hacking

KyberSwap welcomed its users to a new month with an update on its crippling exploit that led to the loss of almost $50 million in crypto assets. It sympathized with all users who were affected by the attack, assuring them of the protocol’s commitment to work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that the perpetrator, who now resort to blackmail, is brought to book and all funds are recovered. 

More importantly, the platform said its “present plan is for the KyberSwap Treasury to extend a grant to each user (who lost funds in the exploit and which have not been recovered) of an amount up to the USD value of such funds at the time when such funds were drained from their respective liquidity pools.”

Last month, KyberSwap was attacked by a bad actor who made away with several cryptocurrencies on the platform. According to DeBank data, the top affected assets in the exploit were Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), Ethereum (ETH), and Base. About $18.85 million was lost in Arbitrum, another $15.36 million in Optimism, and $7.44 in Ethereum. Altogether, this amounted to a loss of around $46 million.

As an immediate precautionary measure, users were advised to withdraw their funds immediately. The news negatively impacted the broad crypto community and even led to a plunge in the price of the Kyber Network Crystal (KNC) token. 

Hacker Turned Greedy

Noteworthy, the team behind the KyberSwap DEX tried to salvage the situation by negotiating with the hacker. The KyberSwap Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) proposed to give the perpetrator a bounty reward of 10% if the stolen funds are returned. 

To put it in perspective, the bad actor was given an ultimatum (November 25th) to return the stolen asset or remain on the run. In a surprising twist, the hacker shared a counter-proposal, seeking to take over the assets of Kyber Network, pay off existing shareholders, and take control of the KyberDAO as a condition to return the funds

With this option out of touch with reality, KyberSwap hopes the proposed refund plan will help reposition the protocol and its ecosystem.