Binance Identifies Suspects Who Stole From KyberSwap Whales

DeFi platform KyberSwap suffered a frontend security breach last week that allowed hackers to steal crypto from two whale wallets

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • KyberSwap has offered a 15% bounty to its hackers if the stolen funds are returned
  • Binance previously helped recover funds stolen from Curve Finance and Axie Infinity

Binance may have helped crack last week’s $265,000 hack on decentralized exchange (DEX) platform KyberSwap.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Saturday that his exchange’s security team identified two suspects behind the attack, and that their identities have been forwarded to the KyberSwap team. 

On Sept. 1, KyberSwap issued an alert to notify users that a hacker exploited a frontend vulnerability which led to the draining of two whale wallets on Ethereum and Polygon. 

The team discovered malicious code in its Google Tag Manager (GTM) which led to fraudulent transaction approvals, which allowed a hacker to transfer user funds to their account. The GTM was then disabled, according to a blog.

“The script had been discreetly injected and specifically targeting whale wallets with large amounts,” KyberSwap said.

The DeFi platform, which doubles as both a DEX and a liquidity protocol, offered a 15% bounty (around $40,000) to the hacker if they returned the funds and spoke with the team. Compromised addresses would be fully compensated, the network said.

Loading Tweet..

Around the same time as the KyberSwap incident, privacy-focused startup ShadowFi also suffered a cyberattack leading to around $301,000 in losses. PeckShield identified the hacker as NeorderDAO, a little-known crypto collective whose website is now offline.

Binance has often shown commitment to helping out crypto projects. Last month, the exchange managed to recover a majority of the funds hackers stole from DeFi protocol Curve Finance. It also helped Axie Infinity recover nearly $6 million allegedly stolen by North Korean hacking unit Lazarus Group in April. 

DeFi hacks have been exploding in the past two years, hitting over $1.2 billion in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Immunefi. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned against such exploits, saying cyber criminals are on the lookout to abuse the complexity of cross-chain functionality. 

Kyber’s KNC token has fallen 5% since the hack to $1.65, data from TradingView shows.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Pipe Network is a decentralized content delivery network (dCDN) that replaces the sparse, capital intensive data center footprint of traditional CDNs with a permissionless mesh of independent node operators. By orchestrating under-utilized resources that already exist at the edge, rather than purchasing or leasing thousands of servers, Pipe slashes capital intensity while letting supply expand autonomously in the places where bandwidth is scarcest and most expensive.

article-image

Switchboard’s price feeds are now sub-100ms

article-image

Big names are projecting the S&P 500 will post a double-digit decline

article-image

A 29-minute halt in block production briefly froze Base, but DeFi dodged the bullet

article-image

Companies can find new audiences by moving beyond traditional press releases, says Aubrey Strobel

article-image

All models are wrong, but some are useful

article-image

The major crypto wallet deepens its trading capabilities