Wintermute, a leading global crypto market, has reportedly lost $160 million in a hack related to its DeFi operation. For perspective, the firm was named the official DeFi market maker for the Tron network last week.
Wintermute is the latest in a long list of crypto companies hacked this year. In August, about $200 million was looted from crypto bridge Nomad, just days before DeFi protocol Curve Finance lost $570,000. In March 2022, the Ronin Validator Security Breach exposed the most serious DeFi vulnerability, where the hacker stole 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC from Ronin Bridge.
Evgeny Gaevoy, the company’s founder and CEO, announced the news on Twitter. However, Mr. Gaevoy has assured lenders on the platform that the firm is still solvent, with “twice over” $160 million in stock remaining. He said the company’s lending and over-the-counter (OTC) services have not been impacted.
In the Twitter thread, the chief executive went on to say that the lending company is still treating the hack as a white hat attack, and urged the hacker to get in touch. The hacker’s wallet is already found by ZachXBT, an on-chain investigator. The wallet holds around $9 million in ether (ETH) and $38 million in other ERC-20 tokens.
White hat hackers or “ethical hackers” hack companies to identify their security flaws. They can be paid employees or contractors working to find security gaps.
Blockchain security startup Certik estimated that DeFi attacks cost more than $1.3 billion In 2021. Going by the number of attacks this year, it is likely that the loss will be much higher in 2022.
