The hacker of Allbridge has reportedly returned around 1,500 BNB to the platform which is worth about $465,000. Previously, the stolen funds were calculated to be around $570,000. However, the rest of the amount is kept by the hacker as a white hat bounty. The returned funds were converted into BUSD, as they were set for use as compensation.
Update on the exploit
1/ Our team was contacted by the owner of https://t.co/EW1uxXBQpD.
1500 BNB was returned to our team. The remaining funds will be considered a white hat bounty to this person.
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 3, 2023
Allbridge acts as a cross-chain bridge to allow transfers of digital assets between blockchain networks through liquidity pools. However, the exploit attempt was a major setback for the platform, as Allbridge had to suspend its offering. Soon after the return of stolen funds, Allbridge released a “compensation plan“ for the victims of the exploit.
We are committed to compensating our users affected by the exploit and are prepared to reveal our recovery plan.
Please check the latest announcement for details: https://t.co/h17VDKZ7H7
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 4, 2023
Allbridge to Start Compensating Stuck Bridge Users Frist
As per the shared plan, the platform aims to reimburse those users whose transactions were stuck amid the emergency shutdown. They will then be followed by the liquidity providers. The platform further updated that it has reopened the liquidity pools to allow funds withdrawals, and a majority of LPs were able to withdraw their assets from the pool.
Allbridge added,
“We aim to fully compensate those victims of the exploit with funds available to us. All the affected parties by the exploit will be subject to additional rewards in the future, but compensation remains our main priority.”
However, there was an imbalance in the company’s liquidity pool. As a result, some LPs were able to withdraw more and some were unable to withdraw at all. Thus, Allbridge has also given an application form for LPs that could not withdraw in order to reimburse later. The form will be completed in the next two days and the compensation will begin in the next week.
The protocol promised the hacker to earn a white hat bounty and avoid any legal action by returning the stolen funds. However, the team also identified another address involved in the hacking attempt. This second attacker has not reached out to the platform yet.
There has been a sharp increase in exploit attempts and different kinds of scams within the crypto industry. As per an estimate, there was an increase of over 500% in the number of reported attacks in March compared to those on February. Including a sharp increaise of more than 210% of compromised crypto funds due to these exploits. It is a growing concern among users and investors in the crypto sphere.
