According to Cointelegraph, the Solana protocol Loopscale stated that the hacker involved in the $5.8 million vulnerability is negotiating the return of the stolen funds in exchange for a bounty. On April 26, the hacker stole approximately 5.7 million USDC and 1200 Solana from Loopscale's two yield pools, leading to a temporary suspension of the lending market for the decentralized finance protocol.
On April 27, a hacker expressed willingness to return the funds in exchange for a bounty on Etherscan and proposed a 20% bounty rate. Loopscale indicated willingness to cooperate and will immediately return 5000 wSOL after messaging. Negotiations are ongoing.
Web3 protocols often offer bounties in exchange for stolen funds, but only a small portion of the over $1.6 billion in cryptocurrency stolen in the first quarter of 2025 has been recovered. This vulnerability affected Loopscale's USDC and SOL pools, with losses accounting for approximately 12% of its total locked value.
After the attack, Loopscale suspended lending, but has re-enabled loan repayments, recharges, and loop closing functions. Other application features remain temporarily restricted. Loopscale was launched on April 10, aiming to improve capital efficiency by directly matching borrowers and lenders, and providing specialized lending markets such as structured credit.
