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.