Verus Bridge Attacker Returns $8.5M in ETH After Bounty Offer
Hızlı Bakış
- The attacker behind the Verus bridge exploit returned 4,052 ETH ($8.5M) to the project after Verus offered a 1,350 ETH bounty.
- This represents 75% of stolen funds, with the exploiter keeping the bounty.
- DeFi hacks totaled $634M in April, with losses falling in May.
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Neden Önemli?
The Verus bridge exploit saw a significant amount of Ether stolen. In response, Verus offered a bounty to the exploiter for the return of most of the funds. This incident adds to a series of recent DeFi and bridge attacks in the cryptocurrency space.
The attacker behind the Verus bridge exploit has returned 4,052 Ether, worth about $8.5 million, to the project's wallet after Verus offered a 1,350 ETH bounty for the recovery of most of the stolen funds.
The return represents about 75% of the stolen funds, with the exploiter retaining 1,350 Ether (ETH), worth about $2.8 million as a bounty, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield on Friday.
Verus had offered the bounty a day earlier, saying it would treat the retained ETH as a reward if the exploiter returned 4,052.4 ETH to the team address within 24 hours.
The recovery shows how some crypto projects try to negotiate directly with exploiters to recover stolen funds, though such deals do not necessarily prevent law enforcement or third parties from taking action.
The recovery comes days after the Verus-Ethereum bridge was drained in a forged cross-chain transfer exploit, adding to a string of bridge and decentralized finance (DeFi) attacks that have kept crypto security concerns high in 2026.
Source: PeckShield
DeFi hacks topped $600 million in April
DeFi hacks surged to a cumulative $634 million worth of value stolen in April, data aggregator DefiLlama shows. The $280 million Drift Protocol exploit and the $293 million Kelp exploit represented the largest incidents of the month.
Total hacked by monthly sum, all-time chart. Source: DefiLlama
Losses have fallen sharply in May, with DefiLlama data showing roughly $38 million stolen so far this month.
Still, cryptocurrency hacks remain one of the biggest hurdles halting mainstream blockchain adoption.
During the past decade, crypto hackers stole over $17 billion across 518 recorded incidents, with the majority stemming from compromised private keys, alongside phishing and other credential-based attacks, Cointelegraph reported on April 21.
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Law enforcement may still pursue action against the exploiter.
Olası · Aylar içinde
Increased scrutiny on bridge security protocols.
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Açık Sorular
- Will law enforcement take action against the exploiter despite the bounty agreement?
- What specific vulnerabilities allowed the forged cross-chain transfer exploit?
- Are there other ongoing investigations into similar bridge exploits?
- What measures will Verus implement to prevent future exploits?
