How Euler Finance recovered $200 million from a hacker

The wild world of DeFi has seen its share of hacks and high jinks, but nothing quite like what befell the lending service Euler Finance in recent weeks. The saga began in mid-March when a hacker used flash loans—a peculiar type of ultra-short-term loan unique to DeFi—to trick Euler’s protocol into paying him nearly $200 million. Normally, this would be the end of the story, leaving the Euler team with nothing to do but cry in its beer over becoming yet another victim of a major DeFi hack.

But that’s not how it played out. According to a person familiar with the ordeal, the Euler folks’ initial response was indeed despair since, as we know, crypto transactions are irreversible and most hackers hang their hats in lawless places like Russia or North Korea. Soon, however, Euler had a team of fixers working to recover the money, including law enforcement figures and law firm Morrison Foerster (a.k.a. MoFo), which is well versed in transnational negotiations.

What followed was a fraught back-and-forth that went on for weeks as Euler’s allies leaned heavily on the hacker, “Jacob,” whom the person familiar described as a mentally unstable obsessive, persuading him to do the right thing and return the money. This campaign reportedly involved convincing Jacob that, even though he was based in Russia, he had ticked off some very powerful people who could lean on local law enforcement to come nab him. After days of such messages, which were partly a bluff, Jacob finally wigged out to the point where he decided it was best to return the funds, which consisted of DAI, USDC, and wrapped Ethereum and Bitcoin.

The upshot is that Euler, one of the flagship projects in DeFi, is now in the process of returning millions of dollars to customers who likely believed—understandably—that their funds were gone. The episode underscores how DeFi, where investors plunk down money on automated platforms in hopes of outsize returns, remains susceptible to spectacular hacks. But it also shows how DeFi projects that take venture capital—a controversial practice in a field that professes ideals of decentralization—can turn to friends in high places at times of crisis. Euler acknowledged as much in a Tuesday Twitter thread that thanked the likes of Paradigm, Haun Ventures, Variant, and MoFo for saving its bacon.

Finally, if you want a less sunny view of VCs, check out this scorching piece by Tezos cofounder and Fortune guest columnist Kathleen Breitman. Or simply take a moment to cheer that, in the case of Euler, the good guys for once prevailed over a Russian hacker.

Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts

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