Decentralized exchange KiloEx has publicly asked the hacker who stole $7.5 million from its platform, to return 90% of the funds.
The platform has announced a 10% reward for the safe return of the money that was taken.
The offer is presented as a “white hat” chance, which is essentially a means for the hacker to escape more repercussions by participating, and the protocol has offered the attacker a 72-hour window to comply.
KiloEx’s Vulnerability Creates Market Panic
A vulnerability in KiloEx’s pricing oracle system was exploited in the incident earlier this week, giving the attacker the power to manipulate ETH values and make enormous gains across multiple blockchain networks.
After putting the platform on hold, the team is working with security partners to trace down the stolen assets as part of their ongoing investigation into the hack.
KiloEx is joining an increasing number of DeFi platforms that are choosing to negotiate rather than take legal or technical action against the hacker by giving them a portion of the money.
This is frequently because it can be challenging to enforce accountability in decentralized ecosystems. Even though they are contentious, these transactions have recovered stolen cryptocurrency in the past.
It’s unclear if the KiloEx attacker will react, but the exchange has made it clear: work together now and save 10%, or face a full-scale investigation and legal action.
Also Read: Phantom Faces Lawsuit After Alleged Wallet Vulnerability Results In $500,000 Crypto Hack
KiloEx Halts Operations
Following the significant hack, KiloEX, a decentralized exchange (DEX) famous for its perpetual contract trading, shut down its platform on Tuesday.
Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the system to steal an estimated $7.5 million in consumer funds.
Interestingly, despite undergoing multiple security assessments by organizations such as ScaleBit, KiloEX has previously reported no security problems in 2024.
While the team investigates the extent of the damage and works to protect the remaining assets, the platform’s operations were temporarily halted due to the breach.
KILO Token Slump
Investor confidence in KiloEX fell precipitously as a result of the breach. Kilo, the platform’s currency, dropped more than 31% to $0.0353, according to CoinMarketCap.
Since its peak on March 27 at $0.1648, Kilo has lost more than 78% of its value. The incident has caused many users to withdraw funds and sell their tokens, which has eroded confidence in the project.
The fall illustrates how quickly market sentiment may shift in the decentralized financial industry.