Euler Finance Hacker Apologizes, Returns Stolen $177 Million

The hacker behind DeFi protocol Euler Finance’s $200 million exploit earlier this month has publicly communicated through the blockchain to apologize for his crime.

The exploiter, going by the name “Jacob,” has gradually been returning funds related to the hack, now totalling $177 million. 

• In an encoded blockchain message on Monday, the hacker promised to return all of the money he stole, saying he was only delaying out of concern for his own safety. 
• In a follow-up message, the hacker showed heavy remorse:

• “Jacob here,” he wrote. “I don’t think what I say will help me in any way but I still want to say it. I fucked up. I didn’t want to, but I messed with others’ money, others’ jobs, others’ lives. I really fucked up. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean all that. I really didn’t fucking mean all that. Forgive me.”

• The hacker initially stole $$8.7 million worth of the decentralized stablecoin DAI, $34 million of USDC, $19 million WBTC (wrapped BTC), and $136 million worth of staked ETH using a flash loan attack on March 13. 
• According to the on-chain intelligence firm Arkham, those assets were later gathered solely into ETH and DAI and stored with a holder address, worth $205 million in total. 
• However, roughly one week ago, the hacker began returning some of his stolen ETH to victims and even sent some to the North Korean Lazarus Group. 
• By the next week, he had returned $100 million worth of ETH to the Euler Finance deployer address. Over the past few days, he’s sent 31,000 ETH and 30 million DAI to the Euler team’s multisig address.
• The hacker still holds $18 million in ETH and $13 million in DAI.