It’s rare when a black hat hacker fixes the wrongs that he or she commits. It’s even rarer when they return the money they’ve stolen, but that appears to be the case this time around. Recently, Live Bitcoin News reported that roughly $25 million was stolen from Lendf.me, though now it appears that money has been returned.
Lendf.me Gets Its Money Back
Lendf.me is part of a larger organization called DForce. The company recently earned more than $1.5 million in seed funding led by Multicoin Capital. However, it wasn’t long before this money disappeared into thin air, and executives were left thinking this was money they would probably never see again. However, at the time of writing, the money appears to have been returned with an attached note reading, “Better luck next time.”
What does that mean, exactly? Are the hackers saying that for one reason or another they were unable to keep the money and thus had to make a return? Or are they saying that DForce needs to up the ante on its security protocols and this was part of an attempt to warn them? While these words may not be fully understood at press time, DForce is celebrating its potential gains over what could have been very huge losses.
It’s very rare that something this noble occurs. When a malicious actor in the crypto space seeks to steal funds, they usually keep them. Look at some of the biggest exchange thefts in history. Mt. Gox – which occurred in Japan in February of 2014 – saw more than $400 million in BTC vanish overnight. The event took place six years ago, and yet very little money has been refunded to customers.
Coincheck – the largest crypto theft in history – took place in January of 2018. More than half-a-billion in altcoin funds disappeared and none of that money has been returned to exchange executives. Nine times out of ten in the crypto space, when hackers take, they don’t give back.
Several different cryptocurrencies were taken from DForce, including about $10 million in Ethereum funds. Another $10 million in stable currencies were taken, while about $4 million in assorted, smaller altcoins also found themselves missing. Leaders of DForce say the hackers have reached out and are eager to talk.
Time to Negotiate
Mindao Yang – the founder of the company – explained in an interview:
The hackers have attempted to contact us, and we intend to enter into discussions with them. This attack not only harmed our users, our partners and my co-founders, but also me personally. My assets were stolen in this attack, too.
As it stands, while the money has indeed been returned, it has not been given back in original form. For example, the $10 million in ETH that was stolen has been given back, but in assorted altcoins instead.
