Penpie crypto DeFi protocol exploiter successfully laundered all $27M ETH

The Penpie platform exploiter rejected Penpie’s team bounty and job offer and finally laundered all the funds through the Tornado Cash platform.

Penpie Crypto DeFi Protocol is an averagely popular decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to enhance liquidity provision and yield farming in the crypto ecosystem. Built on the Pendle Finance protocol, Penpie focuses on maximizing yield for its users by allowing them to split and trade yield-bearing assets. With a user-friendly interface and advanced features, Penpie aims to offer a flexible and efficient DeFi experience.

On 4 Sep 2024, the Penpie DeFi protocol faced a hacking incident, and a final investigation confirmed that the hacker drained more than $27 million worth of crypto assets, including the majority of the funds in Ethereum, from the platform.

On the same day, the exploiter laundered 1,000 ETH through the popular crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash.

To get community help, the Penpie team announced a bounty program to recover the funds. They offered a 10% bounty reward to anyone providing crucial information about the exploiter.

Reportedly, the Penpie team invited the hacker to join them as a white-hat hacker and offered a bounty reward with no legal action.

On 8 Sep, the hacker finally laundered all the rest of the stolen funds. In total, he laundered 11,261 ETH through the Tornado Cash platform. In short, the hacker decided not to enter the negotiation process with the Penpie team.

Crypto & hacking incidents

Because of the decentralized nature of DeFi protocols, it is easy for hackers to launder drained funds without restriction. In 2023, crypto users lost nearly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies due to hacking incidents.

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