KyberSwap Hacked for $50M, Hacker Says Will Negotiate « After Being Fully Rested »

KyberSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, has suffered a security exploit with hackers siphoning off approximately $50 million worth of crypto assets.

KyberSwap Hacked

The DEX aggregator alerted its users of the incident on X (formerly Twitter), saying that its team is investigating the matter.

« Dear KyberSwap Elastic Users, We regret to inform you that KyberSwap Elastic has experienced a security incident. Our team is diligently investigating the situation, and we commit to keeping you informed with regular updates, » the platform said.

Data from Debank shows that the attacker stole funds mostly in wrapped Ether (wETH), wrapped Lido-staked Ether (wstETH), Arbitrum (ARB), and USD Coin (USDC). These funds were split across multiple chains, including $20.7 million on Arbitrum, $15 million on Optimism, $7 million on Ethereum, $3 million on Polygon, and $2 million on Base.

While detailed analysis of the exploit remains scarce, blockchain sleuth « Spreek » said on X that he was pretty sure it is not an « approval-related issue and is only related to the TVL held in the Kyber pools themselves. »

Hacker Willing to Negotiate 

Meanwhile, the attacker has indicated an interest in negotiating for stolen funds to be returned. In an on-chain message to KyberSwap developers, employees, DAO members, and LPs, the attacker said, « negotiations will start in a few hours when I am fully rested. »

KyberSwap was launched in 2018 and had $86.8 million in total value locked (TVL) before the latest exploit. According to DefiLlama, the DEX’s TVL has dropped by 84% after the attack to $13.61 million.

In April, KyberSwap said it identified a potential vulnerability in the exchange’s contracts and asked all liquidity providers to withdraw their funds immediately as a precautionary measure. However, no funds were lost at the time. 

Meanwhile, the attack on KyberSwap is the latest in a series of hacks that have targeted decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in recent months. Just recently, hackers drained $86.6 million from the cross-chain protocol Heco Bridge.