The hacker responsible for the $196 million attack on Euler Finance has begun moving funds to cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, just hours after a $1 million bounty was released to discover the hacker’s identity.
Blockchain analytics firm PeckShield tweeted on March 16 that the exploiter behind the flash lending attack on Ethereum’s non-custodial lending protocol was “on the move.”
The exploiter transferred 1000 Ether (ETH), approximately $1.65 million, through authorized cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
#PeckShieldAlert @eulerfinance exploiter on the move
~1,000 $ETH in Tornado Cash through the intermediary address 0xc66d…c9ahttps://t.co/LAkY66YpoF pic.twitter.com/0XhQV1nbgn— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 16, 2023
It arrives just hours after Euler Labs. tweeted is issuing a $1 million reward for information leading “to the arrest of the Euler protocol attacker and the return of all funds.”
Just a day earlier, Euler sent a chain message to the exploiter’s address on March 14 warning that he would drop a bounty “leading to his arrest and the return of all funds” if 90% were not returned within 24 hours.
The movement of funds towards the crypto mixer could indicate that the hacker is not being swayed by Euler’s amnesty offer.
Peckshield noted that around 100 ETH, worth $165,202 at the time of writing, was sent to a wallet address likely owned by one of the victims. A chain message sent by the wallet address had asked the attacker to return his “life savings.”
WOW!@eulerfinance The exploiter returned 100 $ETH to a guy who begged for his money back as it was his life savingshttps://t.co/Gz9aCUZB0H pic.twitter.com/DhZBenqtuS
— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) March 16, 2023
This led to a large number of other victims sending messages to the address in the hope that they would also get their funds back.
Related: Euler attack causes locked tokens, losses on 11 DeFi protocols, including Balancer
a message fixed they “are twenty-six unemployed families from rural areas”, who lost “a million dollars in total”, adding that their share of the funds in the protocol were the “lifeline of our last decades of factory work”.
Another apparent victim sent a message to the attacker congratulating him on the “great win” and said they invested funds in Euler that they “desperately needed” for a house.
“My wife is going to kill me if we can’t pay for our house. […] is there a way [sic] you can help? I have no idea what to tell my wife,” they wrote.
According to the chain’s data, the $196 million stolen from Euler consisted of Dai (DAI), USD Coin (USDC), staked ETH, and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).