DeFi Protocol Sturdy Finance Offers Hacker $100K Reward If Funds Are Returned

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Sturdy Finance has offered a $100,000 reward to hackers who exploit the protocol. The lending platform said that if the attacker accepts the offer, its team will not pursue the issue further.

On June 12, the DeFi platform lost approximately $800,000 in digital assets when an attacker took advantage of vulnerabilities within the platform. Security firms indicated that the cause of the exploit was a faulty price oracle and that the hack was carried out through a reentrant attack. In response, the platform halted all trading and assured the community that no other funds were at risk.

Just a day after the hack, Sturdy Finance founder Sam Forman tweeted that they were offering the criminals $100,000 if they agreed to return the remaining funds in the specified wallet.

We sent the following message to Sturdy Hacker on-chain:

“To the exploiter: As we have seen with recent hacks, exploits are not as easy to avoid as they used to be. That said, we are willing to offer you $100k as a reward, and further Will not follow you if you send…

— Sam Forman (@pgpsam) June 12, 2023

According to Forman, recent hacks have shown that avoiding exploits is not as easy as it used to be. The executive said that if the hacker accepts the offer, they are willing to drop the issue. Foreman also said that Sturdy Finance is ready to hold discussions with the raider.

Connected: Hack Talk: Why platforms with ineffective bounty programs pay a high price

Recent exploits suggest that platforms can recover a portion of the hacked funds by offering bounties to attackers. On April 4, the Euler Finance team was able to recover 90% of the funds stolen in one of the largest DeFi hacks this year and is in talks to offer a reward to its attacker. Similarly, lending protocol Sentiment recovered $870,000 following an exploit after rewarding the hacker.

Despite showing some success in negotiating with hackers, not all projects share the same fate. On June 1, the Jimbos Protocol team offered an $800,000 bounty to the public after an attacker who exploited their platform ignored their bounty offer. According to the platform, anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest of the hacker or recovery of funds will be eligible for the reward.

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