Recently, a hacker was able to get away with 18 million OP tokens on account of a technical glitch affecting the network. It is worth noting that the total loss of OP tokens from Optimistic on account of the aforementioned technical glitch was around 20 million units. However, the hacker under question was able to get away with a massive chunk.
Hacker Returns 17 Million Tokens
At the current market value, the worth of the 18 million OP tokens is valued at around $15 million. The hacker has now come forward to claim that he is ready is return the stolen OP tokens to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The stolen amount may be restored to the original owners afterward.
The latest statement issued by MMA or cryptocurrency market marker protocol Wintermute recently claimed that in case the hacker opts to return the stolen amount to a single digital wallet address, things could change. The hack would then be marked as a white hat hack attempt, and the offense can be wiped off.
The service also shared the message issued by the hacker, who claimed that he possesses around 18 million OP tokens and is willing to return them. It is worth noting that Optimism is a layer two solution on the Ethereum blockchain. The exploit that affected the chain network recently also created a new wave of price volatility for OP tokens.
As per the updates shared by Wintermute, the hack that recently occurred on the Ethereum second layer protocol called Optimism has highlighted the technical lag on the network. The security report on the network also suggested that smart contracts on the network continued to accept new tokens on the Layer 1 alternative.
When the smart contracts were unable to switch back to the Layer 2 solution, the hacker was able to steal a massive amount of tokens. Some technical reports suggest that the hacker also took advantage of the privacy protocols operating on Optimism.
Furthermore, the core developers at Optimism maintained a transparent approach to dealing with the exploit and managed to recover the lost funds by starting a dialogue with the hacker and holding them accountable.