Hacker Returns $8.5M to Verus Bridge Following Bounty Negotiation
Following successful negotiations with the protocol team, the individual responsible for exploiting the Verus bridge has returned approximately $8.5 million in stolen assets, which accounts for roughly 75% of the total amount taken during the security breach.
Following Verus's proposal of a 1,350 ETH bounty in exchange for the recovery of the majority of misappropriated assets, the individual responsible for the Verus bridge security breach has transferred 4,052 Ether back to the project's designated team wallet, representing approximately $8.5 million in value.
According to blockchain security firm PeckShield's Friday report, the returned amount constitutes roughly 75% of the total funds stolen, with the exploiter keeping 1,350 Ether (ETH) valued at approximately $2.8 million as the agreed-upon bounty payment.
The bounty proposal had been extended by Verus just one day prior, with the team indicating they would consider the retained ETH as a legitimate reward provided the exploiter transferred 4,052.4 ETH back to the team's designated address within a 24-hour timeframe.
This recovery demonstrates the approach some cryptocurrency projects employ when attempting to negotiate directly with those who exploit their systems to reclaim stolen assets, although such arrangements do not automatically shield exploiters from potential law enforcement action or intervention by third parties.
This fund recovery occurs just days following the drainage of the Verus-Ethereum bridge through a fabricated cross-chain transfer exploit, contributing to an ongoing series of bridge and decentralized finance (DeFi) security breaches that have maintained elevated crypto security concerns throughout 2026.
DeFi hacks topped $600 million in April
The aggregate value stolen through DeFi hacks experienced a dramatic surge during April, reaching a cumulative total of $634 million, according to data collected by aggregator DefiLlama. The month's most significant security incidents included the $280 million Drift Protocol breach and the $293 million Kelp exploit.
The stolen amounts have experienced a significant decline during May, with DefiLlama's current data indicating approximately $38 million in assets have been misappropriated thus far during the present month.
Nevertheless, security breaches within the cryptocurrency ecosystem continue to represent one of the most substantial obstacles preventing widespread blockchain technology adoption.
Throughout the previous ten years, individuals exploiting cryptocurrency systems have successfully stolen more than $17 billion across 518 documented security incidents, with the predominant attack vectors involving compromised private keys, in addition to phishing schemes and other credential-based attack methodologies, as Cointelegraph reported on April 21.