The anonymous attacker of the Solana-based Defi protocol Mango Markets has reportedly revealed himself on Twitter, calling the exploit a “highly profitable trading strategy”.
The user who goes by the name of Avraham Eisenberg works as a digital art dealer in New York, shared a thread in which he acknowledged his role in the exploit.
In the series of tweets, Eisenberg claimed that his team’s actions were legal open-market moves even if the development team did not foresee all the after-effects.
To counter the resultant insolvency and allow users to access their funds, he and his team came to a settlement agreement with the insurance fund intending to make all users “whole as soon as possible” as well as “recapitalize” the Solana exchange.
He believes that this process, known as “auto deleveraging,” operates similarly on exchanges like Binance and Bitmex, removing a portion of the profits from profitable traders in order to ensure the security of all user assets.
Community Reacts To Solana DeFi Exploiter
As previously covered by TronWeekly, Eisenberg under anonymity posted a governance proposal asking the team of Mango Markets to utilize $70 million in treasury funds to settle some bad debt.
Eisenberg promised to refund $67 million if his conditions were met, according to the proposal. The remaining money, however, would be given to the hacker as a bug bounty by the community. This came to $47 million.
As the hacker, used millions of the stolen tokens to cast votes in favor, 98% of the electorate approved of the agreement. Eisenberg’s request that the Solana DEX, not file charges were also part of the plan.
By using an oracle to manipulate the price, Eisenberg managed to raise Mango’s collateral value. He then borrowed money from the Treasury and engaged in self-directed counter-trading with a different account.
Following the revelation, the crypto community appeared to be divided over the issue. Some users commented that this was an exploit rather than a hack and claimed that no law was broken.
Another said that the price was inflated beyond the fair market value and that “using the protocol as designed” is a red herring. “Price manipulation of token MNGO is illegal.”