$900K Bounty to Retrieve 3,300 ETH Loot by Feb 14

• zkLend was hacked, offering 10% bounty for return of stolen 3,300 ETH.
• Withdrawals paused; company sets February 14 deadline for hacker’s response.
• Collaborating with security firms, zkLend promises transparency and a detailed report.

On February 12, zkLend, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, dropped news on social media that it’s been whacked by a hacker attack. 

Quickly reacting, the company sent out a message to the hacker, offering a bounty to get back the stolen funds. The company also let users know that withdrawals on the platform were on hold for now, and told users not to deposit or repay funds until the time this gets resolved.

Nearly $900K Bounty for Hacker Who Returns $9M Loot

The message acknowledged the hacker’s role in the attack, offering them 10% of the stolen funds as a “whitehat” bounty, provided they return the remaining 90%, which equates to 3,300 ETH. 

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The company even gave a specific Ethereum address for the hacker to send the funds to, and stated that once they get the transfer, they would absolve the hacker of any liability related to the incident.

Hacker Bounty Deadline Set

The company also warned that if they did not hear from the hacker by 00:00 UTC on February 14, 2025, they would take further steps to track and prosecute the individual. 

zkLend further reassured and said that this message (about bounty) was sent from zkLend’s Ethereum ZEND token deployer account and could be verified by checking zkLend’s official X account.

The team is working closely with several security firms and organizations, including StarkWare, Starknet Foundation, zeroShadow (formerly Chainalysis Incident Response), Binance Security, and Hypernative Labs, to track the stolen funds and identify the hacker.

zkLend Vows Post-Hack Deep Dive

zkLend reassured its users that it is all about being upfront and would share a detailed post-mortem analysis once the investigation is complete. The company made it clear that the trust of its community remained its top priority, and thanked users for their patience and support during this challenging time.

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“We are aware of the ongoing security incident on zkLend. The team is now investigating and will provide an update when possible. Thank you for your patience,” the company wrote on X.