DeFi
“It’s time to face the music” – DL News
- Solana DEX Cypher has been trying to make a comeback since it was hacked in 2023.
- A Cypher developer said Tuesday that it had spent funds intended for hacking victims.
A software developer behind Solana-based decentralized exchange Cypher says he has collected more than $300,000 to help reimburse the exchange’s customers after a $1 million hack.
“To address the elephant in the room, the allegations are true, I took the funds and put them on the line,” the developer, who goes by the pseudonym Hoak, said in a statement. document entitled “Public Statement”. Hook published the document Tuesday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.
“I didn’t get away with it, nor did anyone else,” he added.
This is a devastating blow for a project that has been planning its return since the August 2023 hack.
Cypher saw rapid growth last summer after launching a points program, a sign that its developers were planning an airdrop.
At its peak in August, users had deposited crypto worth over $1.5 million into the exchange. On August 7, however, a hacker exploited a bug in the protocol’s code and pocketed over $1 million in crypto.
The Cypher protocol grew rapidly during the summer of 2023.
Cypher has been frozen ever since, and in recent months its developers have been trying to raise enough money to pay for a security audit and restart the exchange.
However, on Monday, another pseudonymous developer of the exchange accused Hoak to steal money that had been set aside for customers who lost money in the initial hack.
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“It’s incredibly saddening to me. I never thought it would be a possibility, that a core contributor who stayed after the exploit to try to rebuild the project would be the one who recouped the buyout contract funds,” they wrote, adding that They had contacted the police.
In his mea culpa, Hoak apologized and blamed his behavior on a “crippling gaming addiction and likely multiple other psychological factors that went unchecked for too long.”
Cobra said it was unlikely that Hoak was the hacker who stole $1 million in August, citing blockchain analysis by law enforcement and famed crypto detective ZachXBT.
“The on-chain analysis we performed, corroborated by U.S. law enforcement and other agencies, as well as IP tracking, all point to a different person,” they said. said.
Hoak also denied any involvement in the initial exploit and said he would seek treatment for his gambling addiction and would not run from law enforcement.
“It’s time to face the music and reset my life,” he said. said on Discord.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News‘ DeFi correspondent based in New York. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.