Sentiment, a lending protocol, successfully recovered nearly $1 million in stolen funds after offering a reward of $95,000 to the hacker responsible for the theft. The protocol used the Arbitrum blockchain to communicate with the hacker and urged them to return the funds by April 6. Additionally, Sentiment offered the same payment to anyone who could provide information leading to the hacker’s identification and arrest. MetaMask creator Taylor Monahan confirmed that the hacker returned 414 ETH, valued at around $771,000, and later sent an additional 51.75 ETH to the recovery address provided by Sentiment. The protocol declared the recovery a success and fixed the problem.
The theft occurred on April 4 and was reportedly a result of a re-entry attack or vulnerability. The incident highlights the importance of businesses taking bug bounties seriously, according to some members of the community. One member even commended the hacker for their efforts, while others criticized the incident as a “bug bounty with a criminal step” and called for more transparent and generous bug bounty programs from businesses.
Bug bounty programs incentivize ethical hackers to identify and report vulnerabilities in a company’s systems or software in exchange for a reward. The programs have become increasingly popular in recent years as businesses aim to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses. The success of Sentiment’s bug bounty program in recovering the stolen funds highlights the effectiveness of such programs in identifying and mitigating cybersecurity risks.
