A hacker involved in the $4.67 million exploit of the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Voltage Finance in 2022 has recently transferred 100 Ether (ETH), valued at approximately $182,783, to Tornado Cash. This transfer marks a significant activity after the hacker’s previous account had been dormant for 166 days.
According to blockchain security experts, the recent transaction was traced back to the address used in the initial exploit, confirming its link to the hacker. In March 2022, the exploiter leveraged a reentrancy attack via a built-in callback function in the ERC677 token standard, enabling him to drain the lending pool of Voltage Finance.
As the platform reported, various assets were stolen during the exploit, including widely used stablecoins like USDC and BUSD, as well as wBTC and other Ethereum tokens. The investigation found that attempts were made to flag the hacker’s address on Etherscan, urging exchanges to block any transactions from it.
In a postmortem analysis released after the exploit, Voltage Finance outlined its engagements with law enforcement and exchanges to recover the stolen assets. Concurrently, the platform extended a $50,000 bounty for the return of stolen funds following a subsequent attack on its Simple Staking pools in March, which led to a theft of an additional $322,000.
This latest incident ties into a broader trend reflecting the escalating risks associated with DeFi, as crypto losses skyrocketed by over 1,163% in April 2023 alone. Notably, a significant incident involved the theft of 3,520 Bitcoins, amounting to $330.7 million, using sophisticated social engineering tactics targeting an elderly individual’s wallet.
While the industry grapples with increasing threats, there were instances of recovery, such as the return of more than $18 million from various hackers, including full restitution from the perpetrator behind the $7.5 million exploit of the KiloEx exchange.
As this narrative unfolds, it’s crucial for investors and participants in the cryptocurrency sphere to remain vigilant and prioritize security.
