When centralization is good – Decentralization is a cornerstone in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. However, in some cases centralization can be good. This is what the DeFi Multichain protocol teams learned following the attack they were the target of.
$3 million soared on Multichain
The protocol multi-chainformerly known as Anyswap, offers a bridge service for sending funds between various blockchains. An extremely important service in a DeFi ecosystem made up of several several networks.
Last January 17, Multichain teams warned the community that a vulnerability had been discovered on 6 tokens used by the protocol. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.
Thus, several attackers managed to exploit the flaw and steal the equivalent of 3 million dollars in cryptocurrencies.
Fortunately, one of these attackers agreed to return some of the stolen funds, either 619ETH, which represents about half of the lost funds. Nevertheless, 1.5 million dollars are still not found.
This was the second time the protocol had been the target of an attack. The first, perpetrated in July 2021, resulted in the loss of $7.9 million.
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Tether to the rescue
Almost a month after the attack, a good news just dropped for Multichain. Indeed, Tetherthe company behind the stablecoin USDT has set in motion to help recover lost funds.
So on February 11, the company Tether froze the USDT present on one of the addresses linked to the hack. In total, these are a little more than $715,000 which have been frozen and which can be recovered by the protocol.
By calling the function AddedBlackList() Tether ensures that the USDT present on this address can never be transferred. Therefore, they are considered lost forever and can be reissued by the company to return them to Multichain.
Thus, out of the almost 3 million dollars stolen from Multichain, 2.25 million could be returned.
Indeed, Tether has a recovery service to freeze funds and reissue them in parallel. Obviously, this service is not free and is only available from $1,000.
This service has returned the equivalent of $87 million since its launch in 2014.
At the same time, Tether is also working hand in hand with regulators and law enforcement. At the beginning of January, the company froze 3 addresses holding a total of $160 million by order of regulators.
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