Thanks to Binance and a cryptocurrency detective, French police detain crypto hackers who stole over $ 9 million

French police have arrested two crypto hackers suspected of carrying out the Platypus exploit and stealing $ 9.1 million. The investigation that led to the arrests was assisted by ZachXBT, a well-known crypto detective, and Binance, the world’s largest exchange.

[#Cybercriminalité]La #PoliceNationale met fin à une escroquerie d'ampleur pour un préjudice de 9,5 millions💰sur une société américaine d'échange de cryptomonnaies.
Interpellation et convocation en justice de 2 individus
👉saisie de 210 000 € en cryptomonnaies#PoliceJudiciaire pic.twitter.com/rKKuG95cWh

— Police nationale (@PoliceNationale) February 24, 2023

The stablecoin of the DeFi project Platypus Finance (USP) lost its peg to the dollar after an attack on February 17, when attackers withdrew more than $ 9 million worth of assets from the Avalanche-based protocol. The team reported that the hacker took advantage of an «instant loan» and a bug in the solvency check mechanism in the collateral contract. The developers of the protocol have contacted several companies, including Binance, Tether, and Circle, to freeze the stolen assets. They offered the hackers to discuss a refund for the reward, but the attackers did not agree to this.

Regarding the refunds to users, Platypus representatives promised that 63% of the main pool would be returned within six months. «If our proposal submitted to Aave is approved and Tether confirms the re-strapping of the frozen USDT, we will be able to return approximately 78% of the users' funds,» Platypus emphasized.

Cryptocurrency analysts have compared the Platypus exploit to an attack on the decentralized finance platform Mango Markets. At the end of 2022, Abraham Eisenberg carried out an exploit by manipulating the price of the native Mango Market token, MNGO. The increase in the value of the collateral in MNGO allowed the hacker to borrow and withdraw funds from the protocol. The criminal used a scheme called the «oracle attack,» in which manipulating the price of the native MNGO token allowed the attacker to steal approximately $ 115 million worth of cryptocurrency.