Wintermute hacked for $160 million
Market maker Wintermute lost $160 million in a hack involving decentralized finance (DeFi) operations.
The company’s over-the-counter (OTC) lending and trading services are not affected.
Wintermute is the latest in a long list of cryptocurrency companies to be hit by hacks over the past few months. Nomad withdrew nearly $200 million in August just before the DeFi Curve Finance protocol stole $570,000.
Blockchain security firm Certik estimates that more than $1.3 billion was lost to DeFi hacks in 2021.
Founded in 2017, Wintermute trades billions of dollars in the cryptocurrency market on a daily basis as it provides liquidity across multiple locations. Last week, Wintermute became the official DeFi market maker for the Tron network.
We’ve been hacked for about $160M in our defi operations. Cefi and OTC operations are not affected
— wishful cynic (@EvgenyGaevoy) September 20, 2022
Gaevoycho that the company is still treating the hack as a “white hat” event and asking the hacker to contact him. The hacker’s wallet was traced by ZachXBT in the chain and currently holds around $9 million in ether (ETH) and $38 million in other ERC-20 tokens.
The company made a mistake in early 2022 when it sent $15 million in OP tokens to a wrong address. The tokens were eventually returned by the recipient.
$200 million defi debt is about to mature
Meanwhile, Wintermute has more than $200 million in defi debt unpaid to several partners.
The largest debt involves a $92 million Tether (USDT) loan issued by TrueFi, which is due Oct. 15.
Wintermute’s debt book also includes a $75 million Maple Finance debt, including USDC and WETH , and a $22.4 million Clearpool debt.
Gaevoy said the company still has the ability to pay, having “doubled” the equity that was stolen.
“If you are a lender to Wintermute, again, we are solvent, but if you feel safer to recall the loan, we can absolutely do that,” Gaevoy said.
If you are a lender to Wintermute, again, we are solvent, but if you feel safer to recall the loan, we can absolutely do that
— wishful cynic (@EvgenyGaevoy) September 20, 2022
