Hacker Optimism sent 1 million OP tokens to Vitalik Buterin’s wallet

According to PeckShield, the attacker who stole 20 million Optimism (OP) tokens intended for cryptocurrency marketplace creator Wintermute sent 1 million of those coins to the wallet address of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Etherscan data shows that the transfer occurred at 0:26 UTC when the attacker sent tokens worth about $874,000. It is not clear why he sent the tokens to Buterin’s wallet, having previously sold most of them. One theory is that tokens are now largely illiquid on decentralized exchanges, and since there is very little liquidity left, they cannot currently be traded for big money.

The hacker also delegated voting rights for 1 million tokens to Ethereum Foundation security researcher Yoav Weiss. Buterin also previously delegated his 1,746 OP tokens from the Optimism giveaway to him. Weiss tweeted that he was not a hacker, but suggested that the man might be a white hat hacker.

The attack was due to a mistake by Wintermute. The market maker received a grant of 20 million OP tokens from Optimism, but provided a multi-sig Ethereum address that has not yet been deployed on the Optimism network.

This error allowed the hacker to claim an unoccupied address on Optimism, thereby siphoning off all funds. Wintermute claims to have bought 1 million tokens immediately sold by the attacker after the exploit.

Wintermute asked the hacker to return the stolen OP tokens, offering the person in charge the role of advisor. The hacker has a week to respond to the company’s offer, but having sent 1 million OP tokens to Buterin, now only 18 of the 20 million stolen are left in his wallet.

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