The mastermind behind the notorious $320 million hack of the Wormhole bridge in 2022 was initially qualified for an airdrop that could have resulted in the hacker receiving $50,000 worth of newly-launched W tokens.
On April 4, an anonymous researcher named Pland revealed on X that the Wormhole team had inadvertently included several wallet addresses associated with the hack, allowing the hackers to claim the airdrop. Airdrop.link, a Solana-based airdrop checker, later confirmed this information in an April 4 post on X, stating that a total of four wallet addresses were able to temporarily claim the Wormhole airdrop.
According to Airdrop.link, if the hacker had chosen to claim the airdrops, they would have received approximately 31,642 Wormhole (W) tokens, equivalent to about $50,000 based on current market prices.
However, Cointelegraph independently verified the wallet addresses on airdrop.link and discovered that they were no longer eligible. This suggests that the Wormhole team may have already addressed the issue. Despite reaching out to Wormhole for comment, Cointelegraph did not receive a response by the time of publication.
All four of the eligible wallet addresses were identified by Solana block explorer Solana.fm as being associated with the 2022 Wormhole exploit.
The Wormhole bridge was targeted in February 2022, resulting in the theft of an astounding $321 million. This incident stands as one of the largest hacks in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.
However, in February 2023, Web3 infrastructure firm Jump Crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Oasis.app executed a successful “counter exploit” on the Wormhole protocol hacker. Together, they managed to reclaim a total of $225 million in digital assets and returned them to secure wallets.
On April 3, Wormhole made an announcement that it would be distributing over 675 million Wormhole (W) tokens, valued at around $850 million based on current prices, through an airdrop to eligible users.
In related news, a team of ethical hackers called “SEAL 911” has been formed to combat real-time crypto hacks. Their mission is to protect the crypto industry from cyber attacks.