Mixin Network, a blockchain protocol that became a victim of a $200 million exploit, has offered the hacker 10% of the amount as a bug bounty.
Although many crypto protocols suffered from large hacks this year, some hackers prefer settling with the project’s team and keeping a specific amount as a white hat reward.
Mixin Network Reveals Losses Smaller Than Previously Expected
The X (Twitter) account of the Mixin Network had maintained radio silence since Sept. 25, when it lost $200 million to hackers. However, today, the team informed through its X account that it has completed most of the tally work, and the amount lost is smaller than previously believed. Mixin Network wrote:
“After several days, we have completed most of the asset tally work, and the situation is much more optimistic than expected. The losses are not as significant as estimated. Again, we remind everyone to avoid making transactions, market making, etc., on Mixin Network, for now, to prevent unnecessary losses.
“Regarding the asset losses, we can only take responsibility through action besides apologizing. At the same time, being responsible has always been Mixin’s attitude. Specific reimbursement rules still need some time.”
Blockchain Communications Start With Hacker
Besides not giving information on the reimbursement of users, the company did not specify how much was lost. However, Mixin Network is trying to contact the hackers through blockchain messages.
It has asked the hackers to keep $20 million worth of assets as bug bounty and return the remaining amount.
Along with the Mixin network team, supposed users have also sent blockchain messages to the hacker. An Ethereum (ETH) address owner claims that they have lost 83.8 ETH, which were their savings for the past 10 years. They have requested the hacker to return the amount with the following message:
“Sir, I know you are a good person. I have 83.8 ETHs in it, and now I have nothing left. That’s all my money, which is all my savings for the past ten years. If it disappears, I may die. I hope you can consider giving it back to me. I still have children and elderly people to support. Thank you and God bless you with a safe life.”
Read more: What Is BscScan? A Guide to Using The Blockchain Explorer.
BeInCrypto also discovered another message from an Ethereum Naming Service (ENS) address “fbi-crime-complaint-center-ic3-florida.eth.” The supposedly Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) address asked hackers to negotiate the funds’ return before they started investigating the hackers’ identity.
Readers should note that BeInCrypto was not able to verify if the address actually belonged to the FBI. The message is as follows:
“You have shown everyone that you are a very good specialist in your field. But we would like to negotiate with you and convince you to return the funds back to Mixin Network, because this money belongs to the users of Mixin Network.
“Recently, we were able to negotiate a refund with the hacker involved in the hacking of Curve Finance because we were able to identify the hacker. You can keep 10% of the total amount as a reward. Return the funds back to Mixin Network in a short time and stay with the reward, but do it before we begin to identify you.
“If you have any objections, you can conduct a dialogue with the Mixin Network via the attached UTF-8 messages, or you can leave any other type of communication.”
On Aug. 5, Curve Finance hacker returned a major portion of the stolen funds. In July, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Curve Finance suffered from a reentrancy attack and lost over $50 million to bad actors.
Euler Finance is one example of successful negotiation with hackers. In April 2023, Euler Finance hackers agreed to return all the stolen funds after stealing nearly $200 million through a flash loan attack.
Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to Sandwich Attacks in DeFi.
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