Hackers Return All Recoverable Funds from Euler Finance’s $200M Hack – What’s Next?

Cryptocurrency is the world of firsts. In the event that no one saw coming, Euler Finance’s hacker has actually had a change of heart and returned all the recoverable funds of the $200M hack they committed a few weeks ago.

This happened shortly after the DeFi blockchain company announced a $1 million reward to anyone who could find the hackers behind this attack.

Following successful negotiations, all of the recoverable funds taken from the Euler protocol on March 13th have now been successfully returned by the exploiter.

— Euler Labs (@eulerfinance) April 3, 2023

The DeFi team tweeted the above on Monday, saying that hackers returned all the recoverable portion of the $200 million after negotiations. In another tweet, Euler Labs clarified that it would stop the $1 million reward campaign and would no longer accept new information about this matter.

How Much Got Stolen From Euler Lab

Shedding light on the on-chain data, Euler labs report that the hacker made off with three transactions, 8080 ETH, 2500 ETH, and $12 Million worth of DAI – a stablecoin by MakerDAO. Combined, these hacks cost Euler Labs $31 million – these were the only funds recovered.

The hack happened three weeks ago, which sent the entire DeFi community into turmoil. While hacks are nothing new in the crypto space – users have lost billions in the past due to them, this one happened at a time during which the market had just started to get back on its feet.

Commenting on the support it received from the community, Eueler Labs tweeted that they are thankful to the members for helping them through this challenging situation. The team is now planning to set up a user-asset restoration plan, which will be voted on via the DAO in the coming days.

What was The Euler Exploit?

On March 13th, 2023, Euler Finance suffered a flash loan exploit, which resulted in them losing $197 million. The loss came to light after BlockSec –  a smart contract audit company – audited the contracts and found the funds missing.

The exploiter made off with

1. 8.7 million dollars worth of DAI
2. 18.5 million dollars worth of Wrapped BTC
3. 135.8 million dollars worth of staked Ethereum
4. And 33.8 million dollar worth of USDC.

BlockSec pointed out that the root of this exploit was still unknown. But investors pointed out that flash loans – a technique that allows users can borrow and lend tokens in the same transaction – are likely to blame for this debacle.

PeckShield, a blockchain security and data analytics company, reported that the “donateToReserves” function present in the smart contracts of the loan is the key reason for this exploit.

1/ @eulerfinance was exploited in a flurry of txs on Ethereum (one hack tx: https://t.co/L7ddZhHNq5), leading to the lost of ~$197m from the project.

— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) March 13, 2023

The company blamed the flawed logic of the contract’s donation and liquidation method for being the cause of the hack.  It stated that while liquidation requires ensuring the correct conversion rate, donation opened doors for liquidation with an incorrect conversion rate.

Whatever the reason for the hack may be, we need to admit that most of the funds recovered. So, what led to the hacker’s change of heart?

I F**ked Up – Says the Hacker

The message shared by the hacker as Euler Foundation saw some of its funds coming back to its digital coffers was more heartfelt than usual.

The hacker, who allegedly goes by the name Jacob, was immensely apologetic about the act.

“Jacob here. I don’t think what I say will help me in any way, but I still want to say it. I f**ked up. I didn’t want to, but I messed with other’s money, other’s jobs, other’s lives. I really f**ked up. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean all that. I really didn’t f**king mean all that. Forgive me.”

As far as apologies go, this does seem genuine. The grammatical incoherence also shows that the hacker may be a tad bit emotional when he wrote this message.

But that doesn’t veer away from the fact that money was stolen, and many users did end up losing the bulk of their assets. So, does that mean this apology comes too little too late? Maybe.

Another question – where the rest of the money is? Only $31 million of the $197 million has been recovered, which left a massive $166 million up for grabs. Where is it?

“Jacob” has responded to this, saying that the remaining money will be returned as soon as possible. Can it be true?

Euler Foundation did halt its $1 million reward plans – which may indicate that they know something that we don’t. However, we have seen it very often in the crypto space – crypto developers are as emotional as the rest of the crypto community. So, it might have been the case here as well; Euler Labs is hoping that the hacker will return the rest of the money back.

But the truth is – time will tell what happens next. As of now, Euler Finance is up by 3.46% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $3.84. But it is still close to 50% lower than it was worth before the hack – $6.3.

Invest in Good Presales for Definite Returns – Away from Hacks

The exploit’s impact on the Euler price showed that there are still inherent risks to trading assets that are currently listed on exchanges. Bitcoin might be slowly inching toward its $30k mark – but the volatility still remains. And who knows when the next hack will plunge the price of your favorite asset.

So make better investment decisions by checking out leading presale assets that have definite upsides. Projects like Love Hate Inu are presenting the world with an interesting memecoin. And for the more utility-focused, DeeLance has become a great option. Invest in these assets while the presale is still going to take advantage of price appreciation from the presale stages.

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