The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has suffered a huge blow as Prisma Finance was hacked in an advanced way, and as a consequence, $9 million was gone. With the latest report, the stolen amount has reached $11.6 million.
Cyvers, a leading Web3 cybersecurity company, was among the first identifiers of abnormal transactions in connection with the Prisma Finance attack. It claimed that there was an attacker funded by FixedFloat who made a sequence of transactions, causing the theft of 1,965.39 ETH worth around $9 million.
PeckShield was one other blockchain security company that confirmed the attack and updated that the stolen funds had reached 3,257.69 $ETH worth $11.6 million. PrismaFi exploiter-labelled address transferred the stolen funds to 3 addresses and is starting to launder through sanctioned Tornado Cash and exchange stolen tokens for ETH.
Hacker claims as Whitehat Rescue
The hacker who staged the $11.6 million malicious attack later confessed it was a “whitehat rescue”! The hacker, whose address was “0x2d4…7507a” contacted Prisma Finance six hours after the incident, saying he would return the stolen funds.
Fallout and response by Prisma Finance
Prisma Finance reacted to the attack by taking immediate action. It has paused the protocol and delved into a comprehensive investigation. The team has requested cancelling all kinds of connections to cut the leak of funds and they are in touch with their community to bring the community into the loop and let them know the current situation.
The hack has created great damage for Prisma Finance as the protocol’s total value locked (TVL) fell from $220 million to $115 million after the exploit. Furthermore, the token of Prisma Governance (PRISMA) also fell by 30% before it got its part of the recovery.
Defi Sector Continues to be in a Struggle
The Prisma Finance hack brings the existing problems of the DeFi sector to the limelight, where decentralized protocols need to be secured. A report by Immunefi says $336.3 million was lost to scams and hacking on crypto platforms between January and March this year with DeFi the most sought after platforms.
These dire numbers are not completely hopeless since $73.9 million were retrieved from seven money laundering cases. However, the event underlines the relevance of solid cybersecurity practices in the provision of adequate securities within the fast-expanding cryptosphere.
