“Unhinged” Kyber Hacker Demands Complete Control Over the DEX

The attacker behind the recent $48 million KyberSwap hack has issued a startling new on-chain message: they want complete control over the decentralized exchange.

“My demands are as follows,” the hacker wrote in an on-chain transaction. “Complete executive control over Kyber (the company).”

He also demanded “temporary full authority and ownership” over KyberDAO in order to “enact legislative changes” and all documents pertaining to the company’s structure, profits, revenue, assets, liabilities, and salaries.

They also demanded the forfeiture of all KyberSwap on-chain and off-chain assets.

The message was sent eight days after the $48 million hack on the DEX that saw $20M drained from Kyber’s Arbitrum deployment, $15M from Optimism, $3 million in Polygon, $2 million in Base, and over $7M from Ethereum.

Community Response

The crypto community was bewildered by the brazen demands.

“He wants to take over Kyber lmao. The dude is unhinged,” said Mudit Gupta, chief information security officer at Polygon Labs.

“Hostile protocol takeover, thats a new one,” said Aave founder Stani Kulechov.

“You call it hacking, kyberswap exploiter calls it private equity. You are not the same,” said Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs.

Demands to take over the DEX come after the attacker had sent an on-chain message on Nov. 28th to team members, LP's, and executives saying he was willing to negotiate, but that he had received "[mostly] threats, deadlines, and general unfriendliness.

Hackers' Terms

The attacker wrote today that once their demands are met, they will buy out the executives at a “fair valuation,” and wished them well in their future endeavors, saying they “haven’t done anything wrong,” and it was “simply bad luck.”

Employees’ salaries “under the new regime” will be doubled, and if they decide to leave the company, will be offered a 12-month severance package.

LP’s will be given a rebate on their recent market-making activities to the tune of 50% of their losses, the hacker wrote.

The hacker said Kyber, one of the longest-standing DEXs, will undergo “a complete makeover,” which will make tokens “no longer worthless.”

This is the best and only offer, wrote the anonymous attacker, and has issued a December 10th deadline.

Should the malicious actor be contacted by one of the agents regarding any of his trades, the agreement will also be void, they threatened.