Starknet's Zklend Loses Over $8 Million Hacks And Demands A Return

Zklend lost more than $9 million in Ethereum in hacks. The protocol requires hackers to return 90% of the stolen funds or face legal consequences.

On February 12th, StarkNet-based Layer2 Money-Market Protocol Zklend officially confirmed that it had been hacked. The protocol said their internal team is currently investigating the root cause of the exploit. In the meantime, all withdrawals in the protocol were suspended until further notice. The hack has lost over $9 million in Ethereum (ETH).

In a recent post addressed to the hacker, Zklend said that it will allow hackers to maintain 10% of the stolen funds as “white hat prizes.” However, the protocol asked the hackers to return 90% of the stolen funds. This is equivalent to 3,300 ETH or $8.6 million, according to current market prices.

“We are working with security companies and law enforcement agencies at this stage. If you do not hear from us by 00:00 UTC on February 14, 2025, please proceed with the following steps to let you know. We’ll track and prosecute them,” Zklend said.

For hackers:
We understand that you are responsible for your attacks on Zklend today. You can maintain 10% of your funds as a white hat prize, and send the remaining 90% or 3,300 ETH back to this Ethereum address: 0xcf31E1B97790AFD681723FA1398C5EAD9F69B98C.
Above…pic.twitter.com/pievpdhzd4
– Zklend (@zklend) February 12, 2025

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Once 90% of the funds are returned, StarkNet (STRK)-based protocols have agreed to release hackers from all charges related to the attack. If the hackers did not respond by the deadline, the protocol argued that they would take legal action to “track and prosecute” the perpetrator.

In another post, the protocol is working to actively track funds and identify hackers by working with other entities such as Starknet Foundation, Starkware, Zero Shadow, Binance Security Team, and Hypernative Labs. He said.

Today, Certik Alert detected multiple attack transactions occurring in the ZKLEND market. The account claimed that the attacker had stole at least $5 million and bridged it to Ethereum through a designated address.

According to data from Defi Llama, Zklend’s total value reaches $1.19 million, with Starknet Layer2 borrowings of approximately $14.6 million.

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