Hackers who exploited lending protocol Euler Finance worth $196 million have returned most of the stolen assets, according to on-chain data.
In a transaction on March 25, the exploiter returned 51,000 Ether Worth around $88 million at the time of writing. A second transfer of 7,737 ETH worth over $13 million was made on the same day. Previously, on March 18, hackers sent 3,000 ETH, worth nearly $5.4 million at the time, to the protocol. The exploiters still control some of the stolen assets.
On March 13, hackers carried out multiple transactions in a flash loan attack, stealing nearly $196 million from the protocol, dubbed the largest DeFi hack of 2023 so far. The stolen assets included 8.8 million DAI, 849,000 wBTC, 85 million stETH, and 34 million USDC stablecoins. A few days after the hack, the exploiter sent Euler an on-chain message requesting a deal with the protocol. "We want to make it easy for everyone affected. No intention of keeping something that doesn't belong to us. Set up secure communications. Let's make a deal," they said.
The protocol had previously tried to negotiate with exploiters, requiring them to return 90% of the stolen funds within 24 hours or face legal action. No reply was received, and 24 hours later, Euler offered a $1 bounty for any information leading to the capture of the attacker. The hackers also made other transactions, including the transfer of 1,000 nETH, approximately $1.65 million at the time, through the sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
Around 100 ETH was sent to a wallet address that likely belonged to one of the victims, according to blockchain analytics firm PeckShield. An on-chain message sent by the wallet address had earlier begged the attackers to return their "life savings."
