KEY POINTS
- PeckShield reported the ETH transfer a day after WOOFi revealed that it offered a 10% whitehat bounty
- The WOO token plunged by 18% after news of the exploit emerged
- WOOFi said efforts to recover the funds have already been initiated
The exploiter of decentralized finance (DeFi) platform WOOFi appears to have moved nearly 200 Ether (ETH) on Thursday, a day after the platform offered a bounty for the exploited funds' return, as per a cryptocurrency security firm.
A wallet labeled "Hack, WOOFi Exploiter" moved 199.52 ETH worth over $713,000 to a new address Thursday, blockchain security company PeckShield reported. It is unclear if the transfer is related in any way to WOOFi's 10% whitehat bounty offer to the exploit.
#PeckShieldAlert #WOOFi Exploiter - labeled address has transferred 199.52 $ETH (worth ~$713.5K) to a new address 0xEcB1...EA3e pic.twitter.com/ij8TKmHaXi
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 7, 2024
WOOFi did not immediately respond to International Business Times' request for comment.
The movement of a wallet supposedly linked to the platform's hacker came a day after the exploiter manipulated the platform's Synthetic Proactive Market Making (sPPM) algorithm to make it value the WOO token incorrectly, resulting in cryptocurrency losses worth approximately $8.75 million.
In a report later Wednesday, WOOFi said that the exploiter specifically targeted its swap service on the layer-2 Arbitrum network. Efforts to recover the funds have already been initiated and it also offered a separate bounty on crypto intel company Arkham Intelligence for any additional information regarding the system breach.
It said the incident was the first since its launch and it continues to work with blockchain security firms to ensure that any other vulnerabilities within its system are identified faster to avoid similar instances.
After the incident, WOO token prices slumped by 18% from $0.59 to $0.49, according to The Block. From Wednesday prices of $59, the WOO token bounced back a bit at $0.61 as of writing.
WOOFi has not posted an update about the exploit as of writing. Its latest post was late on Thursday, when it said it remains unbothered, happy, focused, "in our lane" and flourishing."
So far in March, the WOOFi hack is the largest yet in crypto platforms, as per data from ImmuneBytes.
The hack is similar to the pilfering of around $6.4 million in ETH from stablecoin protocol Seneca. The difference is that the exploiter has since returned over $5 million after apparently accepting an offer to keep 20% of the funds stolen late last month, as per on-chain data reviewed by crypto security firms.
In a seemingly swift communication process between Seneca and the hacker, the exploiter moved 300 ETH worth around $1.04 million to two new wallet accounts just a day after Seneca posted its open letter to the attacker.
