When Hackers Turn Robin Hood, But Keep the Tips 🍿

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In the grim digital expanse where fortunes twist and vanish like smoke in the cold wind, a cryptocurrency exchange found itself bargaining with shadows—cyber bandits who had seized millions. The tale is less a heroic clash and more a tragic comedy of trust misplaced and satire unspoken.

On a bitter day marked April 28, Loopscale unveiled its curious bargain: the marauders behind a heist of $5.8 million pledged to return the lion’s share, but not without exacting their fee for the trouble—their own “reward,” a king’s ransom in a pauper’s coin.

Hackers’ Honesty: A 10% Bribe Disguised as Bounty

From the cacophony of posts on the modern herald’s platform, X, came news that Loopscale had parleyed with the intruders. The agreement? A theft sliced into a generous split: the thieves clutching 10% as their prize, with the rest reluctantly cast back to their victims. Some 3,947 SOL to keep, 35,527 SOL to mourn.

At 3:52PM ET today, an exploiter did deign to respond.

They promised to return what was taken, provided a bounty was paid.

We behold their peculiar cooperation and tread toward a “resolution.”

— Loopscale (@LoopscaleLabs) April 28, 2025

Gratefully, the exchange offered thanks to their new, reluctant partners in crime and wove promises to reveal the tragedy’s mechanics, ensuring future sufferings might be avoided—or at least documented thoroughly with the sterile precision of a prison scribe.

The Finesse of Theft: Manipulating More Than Just Code

The breach was no mere blunt force but a dance of cunning—one that twisted the pricing scripts like a marionette on a dark stage. The RateX PT token became the instrument of plunder, unleashing a flood of nearly $5.7 million in USD Coin and over a thousand Solana tokens from the vaults, as if unlocked by the slyest thief.

Recognizing their vulnerability, Loopscale froze their coffers and silenced the market buzz, sparing only those few who had entrusted assets under the shadow of these specific tokens. A limited ruin, but ruin nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the dance of legal immunity entered the stage—a peculiar offering to the thief: abscond with the 10%, return the rest, and evade the wrath of law. A deal struck swiftly on April 27, a countdown to an uneasy ceasefire at dawn on April 28.

Today both @LoopscaleLabs and @term_labs got hacked and lost millions each.

How safe is all this defi mess?

Chasing yield or just chasing ghosts? Bonds might look cozy now…

— Tim Haldorsson (@TimHaldorsson) April 26, 2025

A concurrent calamity at Term Finance only stoked the flames of doubt, as voices questioned the logic of this wild, wild west. Is the promise of treasure worth the shadow of theft?

In this era, the world of cryptocurrency, fierce as the Siberian winter, has seen over $1.6 billion vanish in the opening months of 2025 alone—record-breaking, and record-breaking in despair.

And so, amid this theatre of shadows and pixels, the practical meet the cynical: firms now parley with rogues, trading loot for lost time, while the law, weighed down by mortal lethargy, trails far behind. The game unfolds, grim yet strangely comical, as the line between victim and accomplice blurs like frost on a cracked window.

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2025-04-28 18:17