Hacker returns 17 Million OP to Wintermute Market Maker

The hacker who stole 20 million OP from Wintermute sent one million tokens to Vitalik Buterin and signaled that he was prepared to return the remaining funds. After some time he transferred 17 million OP to the market maker.

#PeckShieldAlert Wintermute Exploiter has transferred 17 million $OP to @optimismPBC pic.twitter.com/5PpgeZXaId

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) June 10, 2022

On May 30, on the eve of an airdrop, the Optimism developers sent 20 million OP to the specified Wintermute multisig wallet. The market maker was chosen as the liquidity provider after the token’s listing on exchanges.

Due to an internal error, the Wintermute team could not access the funds. However this was done by the hacker, who took the assets under control. Of the total amount he spent 1 million tokens.

On June 8, Wintermute published a statement detailing the incident and urged the hacker to return the remaining assets to the specified wallet to avoid legal consequences.

«We are prepared to regard this as a white-hat exploit. Moreover, the method of attack was quite impressive. We may even consider consulting opportunities and other forms of cooperation in the future», — said the market maker team.

On June 10, the attacker sent 1 million OP to an Optimism address, allegedly linked to the Ethereum co-founder. He accompanied the transaction with the signature:

«Hi, Vitalik. I believe in you; I just want to know your opinion about this. By the way, help verify the return address, and I will send the rest after you».

The hacker also reached out to Wintermute and apologised that he could only return 18 million tokens.

«Stay optimistic!», — finished his message with the Optimism community’s slogan.

As of writing, the assets he sent to the allegedly Buterin wallet remain unmoved.

#PeckShieldAlert ~1m $OP still sit in Wintermute Exploiter’s address. @VitalikButerin pic.twitter.com/91NsbxUQT2

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) June 10, 2022

In August 2021, the hacker returned all stolen digital assets worth $611 million to Poly Network, which were stolen during one of the largest attacks in the history of the crypto industry.