The hacker responsible for the $196 million attack on Euler Finance has begun moving funds into crypto mixer Tornado Cash, only hours after a $1 million bounty was launched to uncover the hackerโs identity.
Blockchain analytics firm PeckShield tweeted on March 16 that the exploiter behind the flash loan attack on the Ethereum noncustodial lending protocol was โon the move.โ
The exploiter transferred 1,000 Ether (ETH), approximately $1.65 million, through sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
#PeckShieldAlert @eulerfinance exploiter on the move
~1,000 $ETH into Tornado Cash through intermediary address 0xc66d…c9ahttps://t.co/LAkY66YpoF pic.twitter.com/0XhQV1nbgnโ PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 16, 2023
It comes only hours after Euler Labs tweetedย that it wasย launching a $1 million reward for information leading โto the Euler protocol attackerโs arrest and the return of all funds.โ
Just a day earlier, Euler sent an on-chain message to the exploiterโs address, warning it would launch a bounty โthat leads to your arrest and the return of all fundsโ if 90% wasnโt returned within 24 hours.
The movement of the funds to the crypto mixer could indicate that the hacker is not being swayed by Eulerโs amnesty offer.ย
Peckshield noted that around 100 ETH, worth $165,202 at the time of writing, was sent to a wallet address that is likely owned by one of the victims. An on-chain message sent by the wallet address had earlier pleaded for the attacker for the return of their โlife savings.โ
WOW!@eulerfinance Exploiter returned 100 $ETH to some guy who begged him for the money back as it was his life savingshttps://t.co/Gz9aCUZB0H pic.twitter.com/DhZBenqtuS
โ Wazz (@WazzCrypto) March 16, 2023
This led to a slew of other victims sending messages to the address in hopes of also getting their funds returned.
Related: Euler attack causes locked tokens, losses in 11 DeFi protocols, including Balancer
One message stated they โare twenty-six families from jobless rural areas,โ who lost โa million USDT in total,โ adding their share of funds in the protocol was the โlife-savings from our past decades of work in factories.โ
Another apparent victim messaged the attacker congratulating them on the โbig winโ and said they invested funds into Euler they โdesperately neededโ for a house.
โMy wife is going to kill me if we canโt afford our house […] Is there anyway [sic] you can help me? I have no idea what to tell my wife,โ they wrote.
According to on-chain data, the $196 million stolen from Euler consisted of Dai (DAI), USD Coin (USDC), staked ETH and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
