Hack Attack Burns Bitcoin, Ethereum Worth $120 Million Stored on DeFi Protocol Badger DAO

Since the attack, the native token of the protocol, “BADGER”, has dropped by 16 percent and is currently trading at $20 (roughly Rs. 1,500).

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 3 December 2021 14:50 IST

Hack Attack Burns Bitcoin, Ethereum Worth $120 Million Stored on DeFi Protocol Badger DAO

Badger DAO enables Bitcoin to be used as collateral across DeFi applications

Highlights

Investigation in the case is underway
Badger has suspended all asset withdrawals
Details of the attacker remain unknown

Thanks to a hack attack, decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol Badger DAO has lost $120 million (roughly Rs. 900 crore) worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The attack was identified on November 1. While details on the attackers are being investigated, Badger has paused all smart contracts as well as halted asset withdrawal. The company has also officially confirmed the breach. A loophole in the protocol's user interface is being doubted as the entry point for the attackers. The firm has posted some information about the case on Twitter.

“Our investigation is ongoing and we will release further information as soon as possible,” the Badger team wrote in its tweet.

Badger has received reports of unauthorized withdrawals of user funds.

As Badger engineers investigate this, all smart contracts have been paused to prevent further withdrawals.

Our investigation is ongoing and we will release further information as soon as possible.
— ₿adgerDAO ???? (@BadgerDAO) December 2, 2021

Since the attack, the native token of the protocol, “BADGER”, has slumped by 16 percent and is currently trading at $20 (roughly Rs. 1,500) as per CoinMarketCap.

Badger decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) enables Bitcoin to be used as collateral across DeFi applications that provide an autonomous and decentralised option for financial services that are otherwise bank-regulated.

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In this hack attack, the company has lost 2,100 BYC and 151 ETH, data analytics firm PeckShield said. While Bitcoin is currently trading at $59,900 (roughly Rs. 45 lakh) per coin, Ethereum's present value is $4,800 (roughly Rs. 36 lakh) per token.

Here is the current whereabouts as well as the total loss: $120.3M (with ~2.1k BTC + 151 ETH) @BadgerDAO pic.twitter.com/fJ4hJcMWTq
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 2, 2021

“Badger has retained data forensics experts Chainalysis to explore the full scale of the incident and authorities in both the US and Canada have been informed and Badger is cooperating fully with external investigations as well as proceeding with its own,” the company has said.

The crypto market is currently witnessing a global boom with the overall market cap recently touching the $3 trillion mark (roughly Rs. 2,22,79,296 crore) mark, as per market research tracker CoinGecko.

Cyber criminals have also been targeting crypto holders, investors , as well as exchanges to steal more asset

In October, a major hack attack has cost Ethereum-powered lending protocol called “Cream Finance” $130 million (roughly Rs. 972 crore) worth of crypto assets.

In November, US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that cyber scammers are making innocent people use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR Codes to complete malicious transactions and dupe them off assets.

A recent report has revealed that the total crypto crime has amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crores) in 2020.

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Further reading: DeFi, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Badger Dao, Crypto Hack

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More