- The Cork hacker has donated stolen funds to the legal defense fund of Roman Storm
- The hacker siphoned roughly $12 million from the protocol and donated $24,000 to the Tornado Cash developer’s defense
- Storm has declined the help and opted to send the funds to its rightful owner, Cork Protocol
Barely a month after siphoning close to $12 million from the Cork Protocol, the hacker has donated part of the loot to Roman Storm’s legal fund. Out of the $12 million, the attacker deposited $11 million into coin mixing service Tornado Cash and later sent $24,000 to Storm’s legal fund. Storm has, however, declined the help and said he would return the funds to its rightful owner, Cork Protocol, a move that was hailed by the crypto community as an indication of integrity.
10 ETH Donation Declined
According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the hacker sent 10 ETH out of the 4,520 ETH sent to Tornado Cash. Storm, however, said that his “legal defense cannot accept such funds, and it will be returned to the Cork team.” Storm is being prosecuted by the U.S. government for allegedly helping criminals launder funds through Tornado Cash.
#PeckShieldAlert #CorkProtocol Exploiter 2 – labeled address has transferred a total of 4,520 $ETH (worth ~$11M) to #TornadoCash & donated 10 $ETH to #Juicebox: Free Alexey & Roman (Tornado Cash developers’ legal fund) https://t.co/ITTET3M1Ak
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) June 25, 2025
The crypto community congratulated Storm’s response, saying he “[chose] principle over convenience” amidst the legal chaos. Others asked Cork to donate half of the funds to Storm’s defense.
Integrity amidst chaos.
Even when cornered, you choose principle over convenience, @rstormsf.
This is what separates a builder from the noise – and why the chain will remember.
With the Ethereum Foundation matching and thousands of aligned hearts rallying, you will reach what…
— The Book of Ethereum 📘 (@Bookof_Eth) June 25, 2025
The Cork hacker isn’t the first to contribute to the Tornado Cash developer’s legal fund. Others like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have donated $500,000 to the fund, which has so far amassed $724,599, or 37% of its $2 million target.
Cork Hacked Through Price Logic Manipulation
According to Cork’s post-mortem report, the hacker siphoned funds from the platform by “exploiting an input to the rollover pricing logic shortly before expiry of the market.” He also deployed a malicious smart contract that allowed him to bypass the protocol’s authorization checks.
The Cork hacker isn’t the first to steal funds and divert them to seemingly good causes. In 2022, for example, a hacker stole BTC from a Russian dark web marketplace and sent it to a charity in Ukraine.
With Storm returning the funds to the protocol, it’s to be seen whether Cork will donate part of the funds to his legal fund.
