More DeFi projects run into security issues, negotiations with a hacker begin
DeFI sector just saw another multimillion-dollar hack that also led to negotiations with the hacker.
Image by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector just saw another multimillion-dollar hack that also led to negotiations with the hacker, while another protocol is investigating a "potential issue."
First, the crypto lending protocol Liquity informed users on Wednesday that it was investigating "a potential impact" of the "potential issue" with Liquity V2 Stability Pools, one of their pools that allows users to earn passive income.
While the team said they didn't have information about user losses, they urged users to close their positions in the affected pool and warned about scammers who might take advantage of the situation and try to steal funds from protocol users.
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Therefore, the team urged users to interact only with frontends they had previously used, rely on official sources of information, and ignore messages from anyone pretending to be a Liquity team member, as they do not contact users directly.
In either case, Liquity has not issued updates on the situation.
Meanwhile, zkLend, a money market and lending protocol, was hacked for more than $9 million. The team confirmed the incident on Wednesday, informing users that they were "actively tracking the funds and pursuing the identification of the hacker" while simultaneously launching negotiations with the perpetrator.
"We understand that you are responsible for today’s attack on zkLend. You may keep 10% of the funds as a whitehat bounty and send back the remaining 90%, or 3,300 ETH to be exact," the team said, providing an ethereum (ETH) address. zkLend also promised to "release [you] from any and all liability regarding the attack" if the funds are transferred.
However, at the time of writing, the balance of the address is 0.5 ETH ($1,370), and there have been no transactions in the past 24 hours. The hacker is given time to reply until 00:00 UTC, 14th Feb 2025, after which, if the funds are not returned, the lending protocol team "will proceed with the next steps to track and prosecute" the hacker.
As previously reported by Cybernews.com, the return and/or recovery of stolen funds is not uncommon in the crypto world.
Similarly to Liquity, following zkLend's issues, scammers appeared as well. Today, the team said they had identified impersonator accounts falsely claiming to be zkLend.
"We never DM first or request actions outside our verified socials. As of writing, we have not asked users to click links," the team warned.