With a rare diplomatic victory in the world of distributed financial finance (DEFI), Texture Finance recovered most of the funds lost in recent exploits after reaching an agreement with hackers.
The attackers returned 90% of the $2.2 million stolen USDC following an offer of public prizes from Solana-based protocols, avoiding further escalation and criminal pursuits.
The exploit revealed by Texture Finance on July 9th comes from one vulnerability in its vulnerability in its vault, which stated that its protocol only affects USDC’s vaults.
“We discovered a security breach in the Texture Vault contract. A user funding amount of 2.2m has been compromised,” the team wrote in a public post on X.
The drawers were quickly disabled, and the texture began responding “war room” with the deck auditor and ongoing code patches.
In a follow-up message, the team issued an open call to the hackers. “We’re offering a 10% prize money for the stolen funds. If you return the remaining 90%, it’s yours. We made an OPSEC mistake, but it’s not too late to escalate the situation.”
They added that if the attacker fails to respond to UTC by July 11 or attempts to transfer funds, it will be considered a black hat and referred to law enforcement.
Apparently the hacker heard it.
Texture Finance reached the rare grey hat resolution
Before the deadline, the attacker reportedly returned 90% of the stolen funds to the specified texture sol address, effectively claiming a 10% prize money.
About two hours ago, the hackers returned 90% of the stolen funds to the Texture Sol address, earning the 10% Grey Hat Bounty, which the Texture Team previously proposed.
We don’t pursue the issue further as hackers meet the contract aspect.
I want to be grateful…
– Texture (@texture_fi) July 10, 2025
“We will not pursue further issues as hackers meet the consensus aspect,” Texture announced in a new post on July 10th.
The return of funds places the case in a growing category of so-called “Greyhat” exploits. The attacker will compromise vulnerable protocols, but ultimately choose to return most or all of the funds in exchange for exemptions or prizes.
In April, for example, the attackers who exploited ZKSYNC returned $5.4 million after accepting a similar 10% deal following community pressure and public negotiations.
This approach can expose hackers to real results, while on-chain activity is transparent and attributes are not always immediate.
Still, many remain critical of tactics, claiming that it blurs the line between ethical hacking and tor.
More turbulence in defi
According to Texture Finance, a full fix has already been developed and is currently under audit. “We have completed the code revisions and a thorough review with our auditors. The updated contract will be relocated soon,” the team said in a July 10th post.
Postmortem analysis is expected soon.
In the meantime, the texture disables the user’s drawer and advises the user to remain functional “in standard mode”, but no specific timeline was provided to resume normal operations.
This incident will be added to what was a turbulent week of defi security. On the same day, due to a texture violation, Perpetuals Protocol GMX received separate exploits on arbitrum, resulting in a loss of $42 million, and the protocol provided hackers with a 10% white hat bounty.
These incidents highlight the persistent security challenges facing Defi protocols, particularly as complexity increases and smart contracts become more complex. If vulnerabilities are overlooked, even the bit platform could be targeted.
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