Wintermute loses $162 million in DeFi hack
A vulnerability in the vanity address generator Profanity led to the attack
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Global crypto market maker Wintermute revealed it has lost $162.2 million in DeFi operations.
The digital assets trading firm reportedly serves over fifty cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitfinex.
RELATED RESOURCE
Storage's role in addressing the challenges of ensuring cyber resilience
Understanding the role of data storage in cyber resiliency
Responding to the hack, CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated the company is “willing to treat the security incident as a ‘white hat’ event”, indicating an assured bounty for the hacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability without any legal repercussions.
The hacker, as matters stand, has not yet revealed plans to return the stolen funds to Wintermute.
Meanwhile, Gaevoy affirmed that Wintermute’s CeFi (centralized finance) and OTC (over-the-counter) operations remain unaffected by the security breach. To alleviate investor anxiety, Gaevoy revealed lenders can opt to recall loans if they wanted to.
Based on the information available, it appears that the attacker likely exploited a bug in Profanity, a vanity address generator for Ethereum.
In response to the recent revelations, Profanity's author took down all binaries and archived the project's GitHub repository.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
“The hacker’s wallet currently holds roughly $47,7 million worth of digital assets. The rest of the money has been moved to Curve Finance’s ‘3CRV’ liquidity pool, where the tokens will be hard to distinguish and freeze,” reported Bleeping Computer.
-
Security agencies issue warning over critical Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vulnerabilityNews Threat actors have been exploiting the vulnerability to achieve root access since 2023
-
Millions of developers could be impacted by flaws in Visual Studio Code extensions – here's what you need to know and how to protect yourselfNews The VS Code vulnerabilities highlight broader IDE security risks, said OX Security
-
CVEs are set to top 50,000 this year, marking a record high – here’s how CISOs and security teams can prepare for a looming onslaughtNews While the CVE figures might be daunting, they won't all be relevant to your organization
-
Microsoft patches six zero-days targeting Windows, Word, and more – here’s what you need to knowNews Patch Tuesday update targets large number of vulnerabilities already being used by attackers
-
Experts welcome EU-led alternative to MITRE's vulnerability tracking schemeNews The EU-led framework will reduce reliance on US-based MITRE vulnerability reporting database
-
Veeam patches Backup & Replication vulnerabilities, urges users to updateNews The vulnerabilities affect Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.1.180 and all earlier version 13 builds – but not previous versions.
-
Two Fortinet vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild – patch nowNews Arctic Wolf and Rapid7 said security teams should act immediately to mitigate the Fortinet vulnerabilities
-
Everything you need to know about Google and Apple’s emergency zero-day patchesNews A serious zero-day bug was spotted in Chrome systems that impacts Apple users too, forcing both companies to issue emergency patches

