Oasis Exploits Its Own Wallet Software to Seize Crypto Stolen in Wormhole Hack
The High Court of England and Wales ordered the crypto platform to reclaim the stolen funds.
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/UCMUJE3K6FCJRH5TZO2BS2INSM.jpg)
Jump Crypto President Kanav Kariya (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
/arc-photo-coindesk/arc2-prod/public/LXF2COBSKBCNHNRE3WTK2BZ7GE.png)
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform Oasis said Friday it seized assets tied to last year’s $140 million exploit of the Wormhole bridge and returned them to an “authorized third party” after being ordered to do so by a British court.
In a blog post, Oasis, which develops multi-signature wallet software into which the hacker deposited funds, said whitehats recently notified it of “a previously unknown vulnerability in the design of the admin multisig access.” Following a Feb. 21 order from the High Court of England and Wales, it exploited that vulnerability to take back the funds.
“We stress that this access was there with the sole intention to protect user assets in the event of any potential attack, and would have allowed us to move quickly to patch any vulnerability disclosed to us,” Oasis said.
It said it returned the funds to an “authorized third party.” A Blockworks article that preceded Oasis’ blog post identified Jump Crypto – developer of Wormhole – as the owner of the wallets that received the seized funds.
Jump Crypto did not immediately comment.
Disclosure
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, institutional digital assets exchange. Bullish group is majority owned by Block.one; both groups have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary, and an editorial committee, chaired by a former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, is being formed to support journalistic integrity.
Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.