Crypto Company Will Give 'Millions of Dollars' As Bounty for 'White Hat Hackers' After $190 Million Heist

A crypto heist worth $190 million has forced crypto "bridge" service Nomad to offer millions of dollars as a bounty to anyone who recovers the stolen money, as reported first by The Washington Post.

Specifically, Nomad is announcing a payout of up to 10% for Nomad Bridge hackers, with Nomad classifying any party who returns at least 90% of the total assets they stole as a "white hat."

The company said in a Medium post that they will not be pursuing any legal action against white hats.

"White Hat and Ethical Researcher Friends"

It is worth noting that white hackers are people that investigate networks for businesses, often accepting cash in exchange for finding security holes.

Nomad asked individuals who had obtained some or all of the stolen cryptocurrency to transmit it immediately to a certain wallet address in a post on Twitter addressed to its "white hat and ethical researcher friends."

"Nomad will also identify you as a white hat to any third parties who may be considering legal action," the company writes on a Medium post.

The crypto firm also said they are "working closely" with law enforcement and will encourage no criminal charges when white hats send back the stolen funds.

Hackers were able to steal approximately $190 million worth of tokens thanks to a flaw in Nomad's programming, which made the heist possible.

As of Friday morning, more than $20 million had been retrieved, according to blockchain analysis site Etherscan.

Greatest Cryptocurrency Theft in History

Nomad performs the role of a blockchain bridge, enabling users to transfer assets between blockchains, such as from bitcoin to Ethereum. However, that also leaves individuals exposed to both sides, or flaws on either blockchain, as security experts refer to it.

According to the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic Connect, the Nomad breach was the eighth greatest cryptocurrency theft in history and the sixth significant incident involving a crypto bridge in 2022.

Ronin, a different cryptocurrency bridge, was the victim of a $625 million heist earlier this year. In that incident, hackers gained access to the blockchain that underlay the well-known video game Axie Infinity and stole at least 174,000 Ethereum.

Since anyone could duplicate the initial hacker's code, anyone could get involved and withdraw money, giving rise to the "free-for-all" nature of the Nomad attack.

According to Elliptic Connect, more than 40 "exploiters" have been found, including one hacker who acquired slightly less than $42 million by automating the withdrawal procedure.

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla