Nomad offers hackers NFTs in exchange for recovering stolen funds

Hackers behind the Nomad cross-chain protocol hack, worth $190 million, were offered NFTs as an incentive to return more than 90% of the withdrawn funds.

1/ Our friends at @metagame created an earned NFT as a thank you to whitehats who returned funds from the Nomad Bridge Hack. Head over https://t.co/TWwuJwnRXj to claim it! pic.twitter.com/V87rkGhBEE

— Nomad (⤭⛓🏛) (@nomadxyz_) August 23, 2022

Exclusive NFTs depicting a wizard’s white hat are offered by Metagame. Only the reimbursing hacker can mint the token, thereby joining the white-hat category — white hat.

“If you haven’t returned the funds yet, you can do so right now. Metagame automatically checks your transaction history on the network,” the Nomad team said.

In a comment to Cointelegraph, Metagame founder Branner Spyr admitted that “he has no idea whether this will prompt anyone to return the funds.” In his words, the idea is part of broader efforts to encourage responsible conduct in the industry.

The first 50 people who reimburse the Nomad funds, in addition to the Whitehat NFT, will receive 100 FF tokens, price at the time of writing — ~$27 from Forefront.

3/ Once you’ve claimed your Whitehat NFT, the first 50 whitehats can also claim 100 $FF tokens, thanks to our friends at @forefront__!

— Nomad (⤭⛓🏛) (@nomadxyz_) August 23, 2022

Hackers hacked the cross-chain protocol on August 2. The attackers exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract that allowed unauthorized withdrawals.

Analysts at Coinbase found that hundreds of imitators joined the original attackers. They copied the exploit code and used it, changing only the token type and amount, as well as the recipient address.

Nomad’s team quickly offered all of them 90% of the stolen funds back in exchange for white-hat status to avoid prosecution. By August 8, the project had reimbursed around $32.6 million.

Most users reacted negatively to the NFT initiative. Some called it “comedic” and “clownish.”

“Is this what the team came up with to solve the problem? Rewarding a hacker with a useless NFT?”, one commenter asked.

Metagame replied that it was their idea, and that Nomad is focused on “more important things.”

It was Metagame’s idea, and built by Metagame — we just brought it Nomad. They have much more important things to focus on!

Metagame is focused on earned NFTs in general

— Metagame (@Metagame) August 23, 2022

As Chainalysis noted, the amount stolen in 13 attacks on cross-chain protocols so far this year has reached $2 billion.

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