Indexed Finance, decentralized finance (DeFi) technology that enables token holders to monitor market indices, has identified the attacker who stole their $16 million.
On Thursday, October 14th, the DeFi protocol stated that it had been the victim of a flash loan attack in which the attacker stole $16 million. The attacker reportedly created new tokens valued for millions after overloading the system with fresh assets and causing price fluctuations.
The Indexed team stated in a post-attack statement that the breach "was a pretty devastating one" and damaged the DEFI5 and CC10 indexes. The address utilized to take the cash, according to the investigation report, was 0xba5ed1488be60ba2facc6b66c6d6f0befba22ebe.
Indexed Finance urged the attacker to retain 10% of the cash and refund the remainder within hours after the attack. However, once this deadline passed and an ultimatum to refund 100 percent of the stolen monies passed, the team stated that it had established connections that identified the hacker.
The team went on to explain that, while the attack was initially overlooked, investigations revealed that the attacker funded their wallet with accounts at crypto exchanges FTX and Kraken. Both exchanges required users to perform know your customer checks, which Indexed Finance was able to examine to identify the person behind the $16 million crime.
"In the minutes before the deadline elapsed, @ZetaZeroes made changes to his accounts that have made us realize at the last minute that the attacker is significantly younger than we thought," the protocol wrote.
Until the hacker's identity has been determined, Indexed Finance has placed a "hold" on disclosing any more information whereas an internal discussion on how best to proceed considering the hacker's age takes place.
Nevertheless, the NDX coin is still under pressure in the marketplace, having dropped by 7% in the last week due to the attack. Currently, the token was trading at roughly $2.65 per US dollar with a -2.11% drop.
