Benzinga - Mixin Network, a prominent decentralized cross-chain protocol, communicated with the individual responsible for the recent $200 million breach, proposing a $20 million reward in exchange for the restitution of the pilfered funds.
The message, encrypted with the transaction details of the hacker, emphasized the significance of the stolen assets, primarily belonging to users.
In the evolving landscape of digital assets, such incidents underscore the importance of security and vigilance. This topic, among others, will be a focal point at Benzinga's Future of Digital Assets conference on Nov. 14.
Mixin Network's plea to the hacker was clear: “Most of our platform assets were users, and we hope you can refund them. You can keep $20M of the assets as a BUG Bounty Reward for the BUG.”
Two days post the incident, on Sept. 25, Mixin Network acknowledged the breach, attributing it to a compromised third-party cloud service.
This vulnerability led to the unauthorized removal of nearly $200 million from its platform.
Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong assured that the platform would compensate the impacted users, covering up to "a maximum of 50%" of their losses.
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The remainder would be returned in the form of bond tokens, which Mixin intends to buy back using its profits.
While Mixin did not divulged the complete specifics of the breach, on-chain analytics have traced some of the hacker's prior engagements with the network.
Notably, an address linked to the hacker, labeled 0x1795, was credited with 5 Ether from Mixin in 2022.
The method employed by the culprits to siphon off such a substantial sum remains a mystery.
It's become evident that decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, especially cross-chain protocols, are increasingly becoming hotspots for cyber-attacks.
Recent data suggested more than half of all DeFi breaches target these cross-chain systems, leading to staggering losses surpassing $2.5 billion.
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