Bitcoin
Bitcoin DeFi Tool Alex Lab Loses $4.3 Million in Hack, Offers 10% Bounty for Stolen Funds
Bitcoin DeFi app ALEX Lab was drained of more than $4.3 million worth of various tokens on Wednesday morning after an alleged private key compromise attacked its bridge service.
Security researchers CertiK said The attackers likely captured a private key that controlled ALEX’s XLink bridge, a service that allows users to transfer tokens between different blockchains. Hacker transferred over $300,000 worth of bitcoin (BTC)$3.3 million in stablecoins and $75,000 in Sugar Kingdom (SKO) tokens.
ALEX developers confirmed the hack a post in the early hours of Europe, claiming that they knew the identity of the attacker. The team offered them a 10% reward for returning 90% of the stolen funds.
“ALEX Lab Foundation has identified the individual responsible for the recent security breach and is offering a solution through a bounty agreement,” the developers said. “ALEX guarantees that upon compliance there will be no further harassment or involvement with law enforcement. This offer is valid until May 18th at 08:00 UTC.”
Funds associated with the hack were frozen by major exchanges to prevent further misuse, the team said.
Compromising private keys is among hackers’ most common attack vectors. Some of the biggest crypto hackssuch as Ronin’s $650 million drain in 2022 and Harmony’s $100 million hack in the same year, were the result of poor private key security.