Pump dot Fun exploiter identified and arrested in London

A private security firm tracked down @STACCoverflow, who was taken into custody early Saturday

article-image

Source: middleeight.com

share

The alleged exploiter of Solana memecoin protocol Pump dot Fun has been arrested in London.

British police apprehended Jarett Dunn, a former contractor for the protocol, who is known online as @STACCoverflow, in the early morning hours of Saturday, according to a source familiar with the operation.

A third-party stakeholder contracted with a private intelligence firm to locate Dunn, the source told Blockworks.

A screenshot of Dunn’s Binance account linked to his pseudonym and circulating online is authentic, the source confirmed.

Read more: Pump.fun pauses trading after apparent flash loan attack

The 26-hour intelligence operation, which the source described as “a slow burn,” used Instagram posts and other “open source intelligence” to identify Dunn’s approximate whereabouts in London.

“A massive manhunt” using local operatives, known as “auxiliaries,” contracted by the firm, then ensued.

After canvasing the area, Dunn was ultimately located in a room at the Middle Eight Hotel, in London’s Covent Garden neighborhood, where he was arrested 7 hours later.

The timing aligns with the last X post of @STACCverflow, made Friday evening London-time. The profile name references “j’arrête” — meaning “I’m done” in French — but appears to carry a hidden double meaning to his real first name, Jarett.

Read more: Lightspeed Newsletter: The Pump.fun exploit draws yawns and jeers

Dunn was subsequently released on bail according to @JarettDunn on X, and confirmed by the intelligence firm source. 

Loading Tweet..

He is expected to remain in the UK pending a further court-mandated appearance in August.

Dunn is alleged to have exploited admin keys to the protocol and was able to siphon roughly $2 million in funds from newly launched memecoins over a period of approximately 100 minutes last week, then randomly airdropping the proceeds to Solana users.

The team then redeployed the smart contracts under new admin privileges to restore safe access, according to the site’s official X account, and has pledged to compensate adversely affected users, while pursuing the perpetrator.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Polygon Call Template (2).png

Research

A significant portion of the call was dedicated to discussing the proposed ZK-PoS Phase 1, which aims to connect Polygon PoS to the AggLayer using a ZK proof of consensus, in addition to a pessimistic proof. This upgrade is intended to generalize how chains settle while protecting chain health and asset integrity. The implementation will involve deploying new contracts for the LxLy unified bridge for token mapping and migrating existing tokens from the PoS portal to the new deployment.

article-image

It may be counterintuitive that a high amount of focus on a technology would lead to security risks — but it’s true

article-image

Structured products are common in traditional finance, but onchain options are scant

article-image

Plus, an update on the ether ETF front and an overview of this week’s economic calendar

article-image

Plus, Solana fell roughly 12% on the week, and for some memecoins the drawdown was even more aggressive

article-image

Mark Wong is currently seeing some profit-taking from early bitcoin adopters, but he also sees buying interest from institutions

article-image

Bitcoin has been in a bull market for 19 months. If March wasn’t the top, that is.