K9 Finance Offers 20 ETH to Shibarium Hacker; Shiba Inu Dev Says Grab Free Money Before Offer Expires
K9 Finance, part of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, has issued a new bounty offer of 20 ETH to the Shibarium bridge hacker for the return of exploited KNINE tokens, following previous unaccepted offers. The hacker, who stole 248 billion KNINE tokens initially worth $717,000, has now responded, requesting 50 ETH (48.5% of the stolen funds' current value). Despite the ongoing negotiation, some of the stolen funds have already been liquidated. Shibarium developers have implemented enhanced security measures, recovering some assets and improving protection to prevent future hacks.
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K9 Finance's New Bounty Offer
K9 Finance has extended a new bounty offer to the Shibarium bridge hacker, encouraging them to return the stolen KNINE tokens. Lead developer Kaal Dhairya urged the hacker to take the deal, tweeting on Tuesday, “Grab free cash before the offer expires this time.” He emphasized the importance of doing the right thing and highlighted the increased bounty offer from K9 Finance as a more appealing resolution.
Improved 20 ETH Offer to the Hacker
K9 Finance, a key staking affiliate of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, has labeled November 3 a “lucky day” for the hacker. The reason? The platform increased the bounty to 20 ETH for returning the stolen KNINE tokens. The team shared this update via their official Twitter account:
Dear Shibarium Bridge Hacker, Lucky day…New 20 ETH bounty to return stolen KNINE tokens.
Alongside this, K9 Finance shared the bounty contract and invited the hacker to review the source code and approve the bounty transfer. Despite these efforts, earlier bounty offers, including an additional 50 ETH appeal to recover all stolen assets, failed to elicit a response from the hacker.
Hacker's First Response
For the first time since the hack, the Shibarium bridge hacker has responded. On Tuesday, they sent an on-chain message demanding an increase in the bounty to 50 ETH to return all KNINE tokens. The hacker initially stole 248 billion KNINE, valued at over $717,000 at the time of the hack but currently worth $340,256. The hacker’s demand equates to 48.5% of the token's current value, as 50 ETH is roughly worth $165,150 at present market prices.
Funds Liquidated By the Hacker
Notably, the hacker has already liquidated portions of the stolen funds. They converted USDT and USDC to Ethereum, selling stolen BAD tokens in September via MetaMask, netting 3.2 ETH in the process. These actions further complicate efforts to recover stolen assets in full.
Shiba Inu’s Response and Security Upgrades
Despite the breach, the Shibarium bridge has resumed activity, although users are still grappling with its impact. Developers successfully recovered 4.6 million BONE tokens linked to the hack using the StakeManager.
To prevent future incidents, the Shiba Inu ecosystem has taken proactive measures to enhance security:
- Migrated 100+ contracts across Shibarium, Shiba Inu Metaverse, and ShibaSwap to multi-signature wallets.
- Introduced a blacklist feature to prevent malicious accounts from participating in staking activities.
These stringent upgrades reflect the ecosystem’s commitment to safeguarding its community from similar threats in the future.