Hacker stole $200k through Multichain bug, claims to return 80%

• One hacker made off with $200,000 but is now proposing to refund the majority of the money to the original owner.

• Multiple blockchain wallets are taking advantage of a protocol flaw, with one or many hackers behind the assaults.

According to ZenGo co-founder Tal Be’ery, the continuous exploitation of the cross-chain protocol Multichain has already surpassed $3 million.

Multiple blockchain wallets are taking advantage of a protocol flaw, with one or many hackers behind the assaults.

– Advertisement –

One of the hackers, who made off with $200,000 thanks to this flaw, has expressed regret. They claim to be whitehat hackers and have promised to refund 80% of the money they stole.

Felt bad for stealing

In a blockchain transaction, this hacker stated, “Whitehat here, email me the tx where you lost your wealth, and I’ll give you 80% of it back. The rest are money-saving strategies for me.” Multichain has subsequently responded to the hacker, expecting that the monies would be returned to the blockchain address indicated in the message.

It is uncertain whether this hacker was involved in any of the other thefts. When questioned if this hacker also held the wallet from which the $1.43 million was stolen using this flaw, Multichain told The Block that it was possible. “Can’t really know,” Be’ery remarked.

ALSO READ – IN STATES OF EXTREME FEAR, BITCOIN’S “BUY THE DIP” CROWD SHRIVELS

Heckers take advantage of a protocol flaw

Multichain is a cross-chain technology that allows tokens to be exchanged between blockchains. On January 17, the project itself announced the existence of the Multichain flaw. While the project claimed to have solved the flaw, which affected six tokens, including wrapped ether (WETH), earlier users of the protocol were still affected.

Anyone who has previously used the protocol is required to remove authorization to the program in order to protect their cash against this specific attack. Despite Multichain’s warning, many users did not follow through.

Yesterday, the Multichain team spoke with the original address (which stole $1.43 million) via a blockchain transaction message. The letter indicated that the project offered a bounty for exploits, meaning that the hacker should return the cash and be rewarded. So yet, no one has responded directly to that message.

According to Be’ery, one user who lost over $1 million in the theft is giving the person who took those assets 50 ETH ($156,000) as a tip if they restore the remainder.