SafeMoon hacker consents to return 80% of misappropriated assets: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly source of crucial decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter designed to deliver the most important updates from the previous week.

This week in DeFi witnessed the hacker responsible for the $8.9 million SafeMoon exploit agreeing to return the majority of the misappropriated funds. As stated by the project’s developers, the hacker will return 80% while retaining the remaining 20%.

BlockFi, a cryptocurrency lender in the United States, received an additional 48-day extension from a New Jersey bankruptcy judge to present its exit strategy, as it considers the potential sale of company assets and restructuring options.

The price of Ether (ETH) reached a new 11-month peak, even as post-Shapella withdrawals exceeded 1 million ETH. Additionally, Ethereum gas fees surged to new multimonth highs due to a renewed memecoin frenzy. The increased activity on the network enabled a maximal extractable value (MEV) bot to generate millions through sandwich exploits.

The top 100 DeFi tokens ended a two-week bullish trend that had started in anticipation of Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, with the majority of these tokens showing losses on the weekly charts.

SafeMoon hacker agrees to return 80% of stolen funds, says the development team

The individual who siphoned off $8.9 million worth of BNB (BNB) from SafeMoon has consented to return 80% of the funds, as indicated by a blockchain message from the SafeMoon team on April 18.

The encoded message was the latest in a series of exchanges between the SafeMoon team and the hacker as both parties sought to reach a resolution.

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Crypto lender BlockFi is granted extra time to file Chapter 11 exit plan

BlockFi, a digital asset lender, was awarded additional time to file a bankruptcy exit plan by a New Jersey bankruptcy judge in the United States on April 19.

The cryptocurrency lender filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 and has reportedly been granted a 48-day extension until May 15 to submit an exit strategy. The crypto firm is considering a potential sale of company assets or the option of securing an external backer to facilitate a restructuring deal, as stated by BlockFi lawyer Joshua Sussberg during a hearing on April 19.

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Ether hits 11-month high as post-Shapella withdrawals pass 1 million ETH

More than 1 million ETH, valued at $2.1 billion, was withdrawn from Ethereum’s Beacon Chain within the first four days following the Shapella hard fork, with Ether surpassing $2,100 for the first time in 11 months.

The 1.03 million ETH withdrawn originated from 473,700 withdrawal requests, with April 15 marking the largest withdrawal day at 392,800 ETH, according to data from the Beacon Chain.

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Subway-themed trading bot makes millions using “sandwich” attacks

An unidentified MEV bot operator profited significantly, earning over $1 million this week by executing “sandwich attacks” against buyers and sellers of two new memecoins.

The wallet address, associated with the Ethereum Name Service domain “jaredfromsubway.eth,” generated $950,000 from the sandwich attacks on April 18 and earned approximately $300,000 and $400,000 on April 17 and 19, respectively, as reported in an April 19 tweet from nonfungible token data platform Sealaunch.

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DeFi market overview

The total market value of DeFi declined by $4 billion over the past week. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicates that the top 100 DeFi tokens by market capitalization experienced a bearish week, with most trading in the red. The total value locked in DeFi protocols fell below $50 billion.

Thank you for reading our summary of this week’s most significant DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education regarding this rapidly evolving space.