The exploiters responsible for draining $61 million assets held on decentralized exchange Curve Finance have returned some of the stolen crypto after engaging in talks with one of the victims on Friday, blockchain data shows. A message linked to an Ethereum blockchain transaction revealed that the looter asked Alchemix, one of the victims of the heist, to confirm the protocol’s address where he could return the assets. Soon after, he transferred almost $10 million of Ether (ETH) and alETH to Alchemix’s multi-signature wallet in multiple transactions, blockchain data on Etherscan shows.
The news of the return of the stolen crypto assets has sparked hope that most of the assets will be recovered to victims in one of the most dramatic crypto exploits this year. The exploit had caused a stir in the decentralized-finance sector, with investors yanking out assets as a precaution. CRV token’s price had fallen as much as 31% to 50 cents in the aftermath.
To avoid a near-catastrophe, Curve founder Michael Egorov sold roughly $42 million of his CRV stash including to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, in over-the-counter deals to pay off loans.
The return of the stolen crypto assets has been welcomed by the crypto community, with CRV token’s price jumping 5% over the past 24 hours. Affected protocols had offered a 10% bounty for returning the assets by Aug. 6, journalists reported.
The return of the stolen crypto assets has been a relief for the crypto community, with the hope that most of the assets will be recovered to victims. Curve Finance, Metronome, and Alchemix had lost $61.7 million of crypto assets over the weekend when an unknown hacker exploited a coding bug to loot multiple trading pools.