The mysterious hacker responsible for the recent $46 million crypto theft against KyberSwap has issued an on-chain message urging executives, tokenholders, and liquidity providers to adopt a more civil tone. The hacker, whose identity remains unknown, hinted at the possibility of outlining a treaty for the potential return of the stolen funds on November 30, but not if the current atmosphere of threats and hostilities persists.
Addressing KyberSwap executives directly, the hacker expressed discontent with the unfriendly responses received thus far, stating, “I said I was willing to negotiate. In return, I have received (mostly) threats, deadlines, and general unfriendliness from the executive team.” The message went on to caution that negotiations could be delayed to a later date if further hostility continues.
The saga began with KyberSwap proposing a bounty deal, suggesting that the hacker returns 90% of the funds acquired through the exploits, with the remaining 10% as their reward. However, when the hacker did not comply immediately, KyberSwap issued a threat of legal action and reached out to law enforcement and cybersecurity experts, vowing to track down the perpetrator.
The KyberSwap team, in a November 25 on-chain message, warned the hacker, saying, “We have your footprints to track you. So it’s better for you if you take the first offer from our previous message before law enforcement and cybersecurity track you down.” Additionally, KyberSwap announced a public bounty program to encourage individuals to provide information that could lead to the arrest of the hacker and the recovery of user funds.
Notably, the KyberSwap team has already managed to recover $4.67 million from the $46 million exploit on November 26, thanks to the efforts against operators of front-running bots. These bots had extracted around $5.7 million in crypto from KyberSwap pools on the Polygon and Avalanche networks.
Despite the ongoing drama, KyberSwap has not yet responded to the hacker’s latest message. The crypto community awaits the potential treaty that the hacker plans to unveil on November 30, with speculation and uncertainty surrounding the outcome of these unusual negotiations.
Decentralized finance pundit Doug Colkitt previously characterized the attack as an “infinite money glitch” involving a “complex and carefully engineered smart contract exploit” across multiple networks implementing KyberSwap pools. The exploited funds spanned across Avalanche, Polygon, Ethereum, and layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.
KyberSwap, operating on the Kyber Network, a blockchain-based liquidity hub facilitating token exchanges across different blockchains without intermediaries, finds itself at the center of a high-stakes drama that has captured the attention of the crypto community. As the situation unfolds, the industry watches closely to see whether a diplomatic resolution can be reached in the coming days.