Crypto platform UwU Lend dealing with $20 million theft
Correction: A previous version of this article cited a tweet claiming customers who lost funds would be reimbursed. That tweet was made by an account impersonating UwU Lend.
The UwU Lend crypto platform says it has made an offer to a hacker behind the theft of nearly $20 million worth of ETH.
Early on Monday, several blockchain security companies reported an issue with the platform, warning that someone appeared to be siphoning what amounted to $19.3 million worth of ETH.
UwU Lend is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows people to deposit and borrow cryptocurrency.
The company took to social media to warn users that operations were being paused while the team investigated the situation.
In an update on Tuesday, the company said it was “the target of an exploit involving a sophisticated attack.”
“We have made an offer to the hacker and are awaiting a response. The protocol will remained paused until the investigation has concluded,” UwU Lend said on Tuesday morning.
The attack on UwU Lend comes days after one of the largest crypto heists of 2024 — in which more than $300 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin.
According to blockchain research firm Elliptic, that would be the eighth largest crypto theft ever.
Cybercriminals and nation-states continue to exploit vulnerabilities in crypto platforms enabling large-scale heists. Experts at the United Nations are investigating 58 cyberattacks on cryptocurrency firms allegedly conducted by North Korean hackers that allowed attackers to rake in about $3 billion over a six-year span.
In addition to the financial gains seen by cybercriminals attacking cryptocurrency firms, some have found success stealing data as well. On Thursday, the CoinGecko platform informed its users that it experienced a data breach in which attackers exported 1,916,596 contacts from the company.
The hackers sent phishing emails to 23,723 users before their email address could be blocked.
Jonathan Greig
is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.