Attacker Wants $2.9 million from Nexus Mutual to Release Funds

The hacker behind the $8 million attacks on Nexus Mutual last week has made a new demand. He has asked for a ransom to stop distributing the funds he got from the attack.

Hacker Rejects Previous Offer

The unknown hacker has made it clear that he would not be accepting the offer NXM founder, Hugh Karp, made to him. Karp offered the hacker $300,000 as a ransom to stop the fund distribution. The founder also said he would drop all investigations and charges against the hacker.

Using EtherText yesterday, the hacker said he would only stop if he was paid 4,500 ETH (about $2.9 million at writing time). The attacker stated that further negotiations should be done privately in their addresses. He finished off the message by saying that Karp was rich, according to a tweet by EtherText. 

https://twitter.com/EtherText/status/1339085351189614593?s=20

The second condition the hacker gave is if the price of NXM comes back up. Price has fallen significantly during the attack, probably due to fear of NXM holders for their funds. Hugh Karp responded to the message via a tweet, saying he did not have that kind of money. He explained that the ETH reflecting in the address the hacker highlighted was not his. It belonged to the Nexus Foundation.

How did the Hack Happen?

Leading DeFi insurance company, Nexus Mutual was involved in a brutal hack on Monday. The insurance company lost about $8 million in its native token, NXM. The hacker targeted Hugh Karp’s account and carted away the funds. This was possible because the hacker changed the extension of Karp’s Metamask wallet.

This deceived the founder that he was signing a genuine transaction when he was transferring the money to the attacker’s wallet. Nexus Mutual immediately took to Twitter on Monday to give details about the attack.

The Ethereum-based insurance company assured users that their funds were safe, as only the owner’s account was affected. It went on to say that all Nexus systems are in order, as the attack was a personal one. Whether the attacker would get the $2.9 million he seeks or not, will be known as things progress.