Avalanche (AVAX) Price: Marches On as Platypus Attackers Walk Free

Avalanche’s native token AVAX saw a brief price surge of 3.8% over 24 hours after a French court acquitted two brothers involved in February’s $8.5 million hack of the Platypus protocol.

The Ethereum-competitor has continued gaining market cap against Bitcoin since before this court ruling, suggesting the altcoin’s upside momentum is not solely linked to the legal development.

Keypoints

• AVAX price rose 3.8% over 24 hours after the acquittal of the Platypus hackers
• The Platypus hack in February 2023 caused an $8.5 million loss through a flash loan attack
• Two brothers were arrested for the hack, but recently acquitted by a French court
• One brother claimed to be an “ethical hacker” aiming to recover funds for restitution
• AVAX price surge may not solely be due to the court news, as altcoin market caps were already rising

Platypus Finance, built on the Avalanche blockchain, is an automated decentralized finance (DeFi) market maker allowing users to easily swap stablecoins. This past February, the protocol was exploited for 8.3 million euros through a “flash loan” attack targeting coding vulnerabilities. The hack crashed the price of Platypus’ USD-pegged stablecoin from $1 to $0.48.

Following intelligence shared by Binance, French police arrested two brothers, Mohammed M. and Benamar M. Mohammed allegedly conducted the unauthorized transfer of funds by manipulating flaws in Platypus’ smart contracts, while his brother received some proceeds knowing they were ill-gotten.

In a plot twist during trial proceedings in late October, Mohammed claimed he had perpetrated an “ethical hack” with intentions to eventually return most of the hacked crypto to Platypus. He expected a traditional “bug bounty” reward from the project of around 10% of stolen assets, portraying his actions as well-meaning if legally questionable.

The French court recently acquitted both brothers of charges related to the hack. In the day following this news, AVAX’s price spiked as high as $23.16 before stabilizing around $22.

However, analytics provider Santiment suggests Avalanche and other altcoins like Polkadot were already rapidly growing their market cap values even prior to the court ruling. This indicates traders’ bullish outlook on AVAX may largely persist irrespective of the legal outcome for the Platypus attackers.