- The hacker responsible for the $7.4 million theft from Hundred Finance in 2023 has resumed moving stolen assets, totaling around $800,000.
- Converted to Ether, the assets from this activity have increased the hacker’s holdings by over $1 million.
- Despite the recent activity, flash loan attack losses have significantly decreased across the DeFi space as of April 2024.
A year after the $7.4 million theft from Hundred Finance, the hacker has reactivated, moving approximately $800,000 in crypto assets through Curve’s decentralized exchange. This activity marks the first significant movement since the heist, signaling potential new maneuvers within the crypto space.
Recent Movements and Conversion to Ether
On May 1, the hacker withdrew funds initially provided as liquidity on Curve over a year ago, including both Ether and Tether (USDT). Following this withdrawal, the assets were converted primarily into Ether, boosting the hacker’s total Ethereum holdings by more than $1 million. As a result, the hacker’s total wallet balance now stands at about $4.3 million, encompassing a variety of cryptocurrencies like Dai, Wrapped Ether, Frax, and Wrapped Bitcoin.
The initial attack on Hundred Finance occurred on April 15, 2023, on the Optimism layer-2 network, utilizing a method now notorious in DeFi circles: the flash loan attack. The attacker exploited discrepancies in the exchange rates between ERC-20 tokens and hTOKENS to withdraw more assets than deposited. This type of exploit involves uncollateralized loans from lending platforms to manipulate cryptocurrency prices on other DeFi platforms temporarily.
Historical Context and Current Trends
This wasn’t Hundred Finance’s first encounter with security breaches; a previous exploit on the Gnosis Chain in 2022 led to a $6 million loss through a reentrancy attack. However, the broader landscape for flash loan attacks is showing signs of improvement. According to CertiK, April 2024 witnessed only $129,000 lost to flash loan attacks, the lowest since February 2022, signaling a downturn in such attack-induced losses.
Decrease in Overall Crypto Hack Losses
The overall losses from crypto hacks have also seen a decline, as reported by PeckShield. April’s figures stood at $60 million, a sharp decrease from the $360 million and $187 million recorded in February and March, respectively. This downtrend may indicate enhanced security measures and heightened vigilance within the cryptocurrency community.
