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KyberSwap announces treasury grants for hack victims

Published on December 2, 2023

KyberSwap intends to provide financial assistance to users affected by a significant exploit on Nov. 22, which led to a $48.8 million loss for the decentralized finance protocol. To address this, KyberSwap is establishing a grant initiative from its treasury to offer compensation to those adversely affected by the event.

The grant is designed to ease the financial burden on affected individuals and will equal the USD equivalent of the assets lost in the security breach. This move highlights KyberSwap’s dedication to its user community and platform security. Although the specific details and criteria for the grant are being finalized, KyberSwap has committed to providing additional information within two weeks.

Examinations into the security breach have unveiled that the weakness originated from the tick interval boundaries within KyberSwap’s concentrated liquidity pools. This loophole enabled an attacker to manipulate liquidity artificially, resulting in a substantial depletion of funds.

Initially assessed at $47 million, the loss was later verified to be $48.8 million. In an attempt to reclaim the stolen assets, KyberSwap proposed a 10% reward to the wrongdoer, encountering unconventional requests instead of acceptance.

Interestingly, KyberSwap has successfully recovered $4.7 million of the stolen funds, which were separately taken by third-party MEV bots during the hack. This partial recovery and the proposed treasury grants reflect the platform’s proactive approach to addressing security breaches. Additionally, the incident has prompted a thorough review of KyberSwap’s security protocols, with the team committed to enhancing safeguards to prevent future exploits.