Hacker Behind Euler Attack Seems Uninterested in Asylum Offer

Last updated on March 23rd, 2023 at 07:28 am

Just hours after a $1 million bounty was offered to identify the culprit behind the $196 million attack on Euler Finance, the hacker has begun moving the funds into the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

#PeckShieldAlert @eulerfinance exploiter on the move
~1,000 $ETH into Tornado Cash through intermediary address 0xc66d…c9ahttps://t.co/LAkY66YpoF pic.twitter.com/0XhQV1nbgn

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 16, 2023

The Euler Foundation, on March 15, 2023, issued a threat to the attacker through an on-chain message that if 90% of the funds weren’t returned within 24 hours, it would launch a bounty that would result in the arrest of the hacker and the return of all funds. The firm urged anyone with vital information that could help the organization to send a mail to an address created to that effect.

On March 16, 2023, a blockchain analytics company PeckShield tweeted that the perpetrator of the Ethereum non-custodial lending protocol’s flash loan attack was on the move. They reported that the exploiter moved 1,000 Ether (approx. $1.65 million) using Tornado Cash.

Meanwhile, before moving the funds, Peckshield pointed out that around 100 ETH, currently valued at $165,202, were transmitted to a wallet address believed to be controlled by one of the victims. The wallet address had earlier begged the attacker in an on-chain message to refund what they termed as their “life savings.” This prompted many other victims to send an on-chain message to the hacker, hoping their funds would be returned.

The hacker executed a $196 million flash loan on Euler’s Ethereum-based lending protocol on March 13, 2023. Euler immediately acknowledged the breach and reached out to the attacker to parley but got no response. The firm tried to offer the hacker an asylum offer through the on-chain message, offering the hacker a 10% offer which will see the hacker returning $176.4 million to Euler while they get to keep $19.6 million.

Today the Euler Foundation is launching a $1M reward in the hope that this provides additional incentive for information that leads to the Euler protocol attacker’s arrest and the return of all funds extracted by the attacker.

— Euler Labs (@eulerfinance) March 15, 2023