Crema Finance Hacker Negotiates With Defi Project's Team, Returns $8 Million in ETH and SOL

Following the hack on July 2, 2022, the team behind the decentralized finance (defi) protocol Crema Finance detailed that after some negotiation, the hacker returned roughly $8 million in crypto assets. According to the team, the hacker agreed to take a white hat bounty worth 45,455 solana.

Hacker Returns $8 Million in Crypto to Crema Finance

On July 2, 2022, the defi project Crema Finance was exploited for roughly $8.7 million in crypto assets. According to the blockchain auditing firm Ottersec, flash loan attacks were used to siphon $8,782,446 worth of digital currencies.

Crema Finance temporarily suspended the program and started investigating the exploit. On July 5, Crema Finance said that the investigation was making “significant progress.”

“By tracing the original gas sources of the hacker’s address, we targeted a suspicious identity that might relate to the hacking incident. New updates will be shared following a further verification,” Crema Finance said on Tuesday. Furthermore, the defi project’s team detailed that it received the on-chain reply from the suspected hacker. Crema Finance noted:

We’re verifying its authenticity and starting the negotiation process.

A Majority of the $2 Billion in Crypto Stolen in 2022 Stemmed from Defi Exploits

It seems after a negotiation process and a bounty reward of 45,455 solana (SOL), the hacker returned two large sums of ETH and SOL.

“After a long negotiation,” Crema Finance explained, “the hacker agreed to take 45,455 SOL as the white hat bounty. Now we have confirmed the receipt of 6,064 ETH + 23,967.9 SOL in four transactions… A follow-up compensation plan will be released in 48h.”

Decentralized finance (defi) protocols have fallen victim to numerous hacks in 2022. In the first quarter alone, $1.3 billion in crypto funds was stolen from people, exchanges, or defi protocols. 97% of the $1.3 billion stemmed from defi exploits and during the second quarter, $670 million was stolen from defi exploits.

A majority of the stolen crypto from Q2 2022’s defi exploits came from four different projects, according to a report written by Immunefi. The four projects include Beanstalk, Harmony Horizon Bridge, Mirror Protocol, and Fei Protocol.

Just before announcing the successful communications with the hacker, Crema Finance detailed that it submitted its new codebase for audit to the blockchain security firm Slowmist. “Crema’s protocol will go live again after the new audit is completed,” the Crema Finance team said.

Once in a while, some defi projects get lucky and are able to negotiate with the attackers, and the hacker decides to return a fraction or all of the stolen funds. While there have been many attempts to talk to a hacker or offer them a reward, a majority of defi projects fail to make contact with the attacker and wind up eating the loss.