- 83% of the funds stolen in the Curve Finance hack have been recovered
- The hackers tried to wash the funds through Binance, but they were frozen
- Changpeng Zhao tweeted that $450,000 of the $570,000 worth of tokens came through the exchange
Over $450,000 of the $570,000 worth of tokens stolen in a recent hack on the Curve Finance DeFi protocol has been recovered, largely because the hackers sent the money to Binance. In a recent tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao explained how some 83% of the funds had come through the exchange in various ways, with the company able to track and freeze the coins, in a sign that exchanges are starting to win over hackers.
Hackers Changed DNS Details
Curve.Finance was hacked last week when someone was able to change the domain name system (DNS) entry for the protocol’s website, forwarding users to an imitation site and approving a malicious contract that stole their funds. Zhao tweeted about the hack himself and warned people to avoid the site, before adding that Curve used web hosting company GoDaddy for its DNS, which he called “insecure”, adding:
“No web3 projects should use that. Very susceptible to social engineering.”
Zhao added that Binance was “monitoring” the situation, something that turned out not be an idle threat – over the weekend he revealed that the hackers, despite being smart enough to re-route the Curve website, weren’t quite up to speed with what to do with the funds afterwards:
Exchange Network Proving Fruitful
The fact that such a large amount of the funds was caught by Binance shows how the blockchain tracing conducted by major exchanges is paying off. Of course, not all exchanges can afford such a large scale operation as Binance, but those exchanges typically have lower volume, meaning that large scale hacks are difficult to cash out. It is also known that exchanges of course talk to each other, and can warn each other of incoming illegal transactions.
This network and the action that exchanges can take is a great example of the crypto space regulating itself and trying to stop illegal activity in the sector.
