Rho Markets recently faced a cyber attack where a bot managed to extract $7.6 million from the platform. However, the good news is that the attacker returned the funds to the liquidity and lending protocol on the rollup chain Scroll. Initially, it was believed that a bug in an oracle contract led to the attack, but it was later revealed that it was an MEV attack carried out by a bot due to issues with the oracle.
In a surprising turn of events, the attacker left a message on the transaction where the funds were siphoned, stating that they understood the funds belonged to users and were willing to return them. However, they requested Rho Markets to acknowledge that it was not an exploit or hack but a misconfiguration on the platform’s end.
Over the weekend, Rho Markets announced that they had successfully completed the fund allocation process and moved all assets back into the protocol’s pools. This meant that the protocol was officially back online and operational. The platform also expressed its commitment to enhancing security measures to prevent future attacks. They mentioned plans to bring in more third-party partners for added security, implement on-chain data monitoring, conduct smart contract audits, and strengthen internal security measures through multiple reviews and rigorous testing.
After the attacker returned the funds promptly, Rho Markets focused on reinstating the protocol, which had been paused to prevent further losses. They outlined a phased approach to resuming operations, starting with repaying affected accounts, refilling drained liquidity pools, and eventually restoring borrowing and transfer functionalities.
The cyber attack on Rho Markets came amidst a challenging week for the crypto industry, with LI.FI falling victim to a $10 million exploit and WazirX experiencing a hack that resulted in the theft of over $230 million. These incidents have highlighted the importance of robust security measures and proactive risk management strategies in the world of decentralized finance.