Balancer Sends Message To $128M Hacker, Offers Bounty Arrangement

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) behind troubled DeFi protocol Balancer has issued a notice to the wallet behind a $128 million heist of the money maker project. The Balancer DAO is requesting that the hackers cooperate to resolve the situation or face an escalation in any form necessary.

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Balancer To Hacker: Take Bounty Or Risk Persecution 

On Monday, Balancer suffered a major security breach resulting in the loss of assets worth over $100 million. According to the report by the protocol’s development team, the attack affected the balancer V2 composable stable pools, which were outside the pause window due to their long-standing live on-chain period. 

Bitcoinist reported that the hackers deployed a malicious contract targeting at altering vault calls during these pools’ initialization and eventually dodging security protocols to steal about $70 million in Ethereum, among other assets. 

In an X post on Friday, the Balancer DAO, which serves as the protocol’s governing body, shows its efforts in reaching out to the hacker’s wallet via a blockchain message. The DAO is presenting an opportunity for an amicable settlement without any escalation or legal involvement. 

The DAO said:

Notably, the message also includes an offer of a bounty, which allows the hacker to keep a percentage of the loot legally. 

The DAO added: 

With no reply by the specified deadline, the governing body intends to employ all technical, on-chain, and legal means to identify the attacker and initiate a persecution. Interestingly, they have also warned that the bounty offer will be given as a reward to any potential informant with relevant information on the attackers.

BAL Price Overview

At the time of writing, BAL, the native token of Balancer, is now trading at $0.8547 following a 4.54% gain in the last day. However, the negative sentiment surrounding the recent hack amid a broader market correction is reflected in its weekly loss of 13.26%. 

Featured image from Securities.io, chart from Tradingview.com