Apparently, the Allbridge hacker has returned about 1,500 BNB to the platform, which equates to about $465,000. The stolen funds had previously been estimated at about $570,000. However, the rest of the amount is kept by the hacker as a white hat reward. Returned funds were converted to BUSD as they were set aside for use as compensation.
Update on the exploit
1/ Our team was contacted by the owner of
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 enable transfers of digital assets between blockchain networks through liquidity pools. However, the exploit attempt dealt a severe setback for the platform, as Allbridge had to suspend its offer. Shortly after the return of the stolen funds, Allbridge published 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:
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 4, 2023
ALLBRIDGE WILL START COMPENSATING BLOCKED BRIDGE USERS FIRST
Under the shared plan, the platform intends to reimburse those users whose transactions got stuck during the lockdown. Next, liquidity providers will follow. The platform further updated that it has reopened liquidity pools to allow withdrawal of funds, and most LPs were able to withdraw their assets from the pool.
Allbridge added,
“Our goal is to fully compensate the victims of the exploit with the funds available to us. All parties affected by the exploit will be subject to additional rewards in the future, but compensation remains our top priority.”
However, there was an imbalance in the company’s liquidity fund. As a result, some LPs were able to withdraw more and others were unable to withdraw at all. For this reason, Allbridge has also provided a claim form for LPs that were unable to withdraw for the purpose of later reimbursement. The form will be filled out in the next two days and compensation will start 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 hack attempt. This second attacker has yet to contact the platform.
There has been a sharp increase in exploit attempts and different types of scams in the cryptocurrency sector. According to one estimate, there has been a more than 500% increase in the number of reported attacks in March compared to those in February. Including a sharp increase of more than 210% of the crypto funds committed due to these exploits. This is a growing concern among users and investors in the field of cryptocurrencies.