Ethereum DeFi Platform Recovers $7.6 Million After Complying With Exploiter’s Demands

An exploit on the Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, Scroll, resulted in millions being drained from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Rho Markets. On Friday, Rho Markets announced that $7.6 million worth of compromised user funds were being returned to the lending platform, assuring users that no funds were ultimately lost. "We are thrilled to announce that the issue has been successfully resolved," the project stated on Twitter (X), adding that funds were being reassigned back to the borrow pools.

Earlier, an on-chain message from the entity responsible for the incident demanded that Rho Markets address the software misconfigurations that allowed for the siphoning of funds. The message read, "We understand that the funds belong to users and are willing to fully return. But first, we would like you to admit that it was not an exploit or a hack, but a misconfiguration on your end."

In response, Rho Markets, which operates on the Scroll network, paused its platform after detecting unusual activity. Holding $40 million in crypto assets, the project quickly shut down operations to investigate. A Rho Markets dashboard revealed that $1.1 million in Tether (USDT), $2.3 million in USDC, and $6 million in wrapped staked Ethereum (wstETH) had been "borrowed" in amounts exceeding their listed supply.

Scroll advised users on Twitter to "temporarily revoke all approvals," preventing decentralized applications from accessing their funds. The network also temporarily delayed finalization, meaning transactions would take longer to process.

The entity behind the exploit claimed that the issue stemmed from improperly implemented price oracles, which allowed a bot to execute profitable transactions by taking advantage of the misconfiguration.

source : https://decrypt.co/240653/rho-markets-scroll-exploit-funds-returned