TL;DR
- A developer of the Cypher protocol, known as “Hoak,” confesses to embezzling community funds, citing a gambling addiction.
- The stolen funds include over $314,674 in USDT, USDC, and Solana, along with other cryptocurrencies.
- Hoak’s confession was triggered by an ongoing investigation in the Cypher Discord.
A developer of the Cypher protocol, known as “Hoak,” has publicly confessed to embezzling community funds totaling nearly half a million dollars to finance his gambling addiction. Hoak’s confession came through a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, where he admitted to taking more than $314,674 in USDT, USDC, and Solana, as well as an additional sum in other cryptocurrencies.
According to a contributor to the Cypher protocol, Barrett, the stolen funds were transferred to Binance from a wallet associated with Hoak. Additionally, the same wallet accumulated over $184,077 in ETH, RLB, ORCA, RAY, BONK, JitoSOL, mSOL, and WSOL.
My statement on the situation.
TLDR: I fucked up way too hard, way too many times. I don’t expect anyone to forgive me or let this go unpunished.https://t.co/CNq8UFKCkc
— hoak (@hoakbuilds) May 14, 2024
Hoak’s confession appears to have been prompted by an ongoing investigation within the protocol’s Discord server. In his statement, Hoak expressed remorse for his actions and took responsibility for the consequences. He attributed his behavior to a gambling addiction and other unspecified psychological factors.
The theft allegedly occurred through 36 withdrawal transactions over several months, which was eventually discovered when a Discord server member reported being unable to withdraw promised funds. Barrett expressed disappointment with the situation and shared details of the incident on Twitter.
Cypher Under Scrutiny Due to Hoak’s Actions
Hoak also revealed that the incident dates back to an unspecified event at the first Solana Breakpoint conference in November 2021. His confession has raised concerns within the community, especially following the hack of Mango Markets in October 2022, which was mentioned as an influential event in Hoak’s behavior.
Additionally, ZachXBT, a well-known member of the crypto community, claimed to have personal information about Hoak and expressed willingness to share it with authorities if necessary. The disclosed information has led to further speculation about the potential legal ramifications of the case.
Unfortunately, Hoak has jeopardized the industry and raised questions about the security and trust in decentralized projects.
