Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Penpie was hit by a massive exploit on Wednesday in which the attacker drained about $27 million in crypto assets. The looted digital assets include staked ETH and wrapped USDC.
Penpie, built on Pendle, acknowledged the exploit and expressed willingness to negotiate a bounty for the safe return of the funds. Pendle also confirmed a security compromise but assured that investor funds on their platform are secure.
Penpie loses $27M in hack
In an X post, Penpie admitted that the platform encountered a security compromise and moved ahead to pause all deposits and withdrawals. DeFi protocols are no strangers to hacks, Penpie’s case is just the latest. Magpie, the devs behind Penpie, suggested that it had identified the root cause of the hack and all other protocols within the Magpie ecosystem remained secure and unaffected.
Penpie’s token, PNP, took a nosedive as its price dropped 40% in the last 24 hours. Its 24-hour trading volume spiked by 1300% to stand at $458K. PNP is trading at an average price of $0.987, at the press time.
Pendle’s price wasn’t spared either, its price dropped by 11% over the last day. PENDLE is trading at an average price of $2.78, at the press time. Its 24-hour trading volume is down by 25% to stand at $55.3 million.
As per the data provided by Lookonchain, Penpie was exploited for $27.3 million. This hack involved looting with 2,695 Restaked Swell Ethereum (approx worth $6.62 million), 4,101 agETH (approx worth $10.17 million), 2,723 wrapped stETH (approx worth $7.77 million), 2.52 million Ethena Staked USDe (approx worth $2.77 million).
Penpie(@Penpiexyz_io) was exploited for $27.3M, including:
2,695 rswETH($6.62M)4,101 agETH($10.17M)2,723 wstETH($7.77M)2.52M sUSDe($2.77M)
The hacker exchanged all assets for 11,109 $ETH($27M) and deposited 1000 $ETH($2.34M) into #TornadoCash.https://t.co/u7SYHRL8UI pic.twitter.com/NUcD3Qrv4X
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 4, 2024
The hacker exchanged all assets for 11,109 Ether and deposited 1000 Ether into Tornado Cash.
Bounty talks begin, Penpie hopes for safe return of funds
Penpie addressed the hacker in its report and believes there is a potential for a positive resolution that could benefit all parties. The protocol mentioned that it is a community-driven project, and these funds mean a lot to our users.
The platform expressed willingness to negotiate a bounty for the safe return of the funds, offering the hacker an opportunity to transition into a white-hat role, where their skills will be acknowledged and rewarded.
In exchange, Penpie assures that there will be legal actions while the hacker’s identity will remain confidential. However, the exploiter will receive a percentage of the funds as a bounty reward.
