DeFi Lender Euler Finance Opens Redemptions After $200 Million Flash Loan Attack

Summary:

• The DeFi protocol recovered a bulk of the $200 million in crypto stolen in March by unidentified hackers.
• Euler Finance opened redemptions for recovered assets, allowing users to access crypto they had deposited in the platform.
• The matter is a rare ending in DeFi as hacked protocols hardly ever recover stolen funds and usually rely on other means to reimburse affected users.

Users of Euler Finance were greeted with rare news on Wednesday as the platform opened the path to reimbursement after an exploit in March.

The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lender opened redemptions of recovered funds on April 12 around 2:00 UTC following a $200 million hack on the platform just a few weeks ago. Opening redemptions for recovered funds means that Euler Finance users can begin to access crypto they had deposited on the platform before hackers stole funds from the DeFi lender.

Redemptions are possible this quickly because Euler was able to recover the bulk of the funds stolen during the $200 million flash loan exploit last month. The recovered Euler funds are worth around $223 million at current prices. This recovery includes 95,556 Ether (ETH) worth $182 million and $43 million in Maker’s DAI stablecoin.

The flash loan attacker funneled $1.8 million through sanctioned crypto tumbler Tornado Cash and sent 100 ETH to a victim. It’s unclear if these assets are part of the funds that Euler recovered.

Euler’s Discord server was flooded with euphoria as users shared excitement over the DeFi lender opening redemptions. Indeed, Euler’s case is rare in the DeFi space as protocols hardly ever recover stolen assets and rely on other means to make users whole.

Crypto Hackers Besiege DeFi

Euler Finance was one of several protocols attacked by cybercriminals in the past few months. 2022 in particular posed a challenging year for the space as platforms lost over $3 billion from hacks, the most in crypto history. October last year was renamed “Hacktober”, making it the worse month ever for DeFi hacks.

Regardless of these exploits, some maintain that decentralized finance is a crucial part of crypto due to trustless protocols and the decentralized model leveraged by the platforms.