Mango Markets Exploiter Provides Ultimatum: ‘Repay Bad Debt’

Hacker proposes to send back stolen MSOL, SOL and MNGO if Mango Markets promises to pay back bad debt using USDC available in its treasury.

Oct 12, 2022 at 3:40 a.m. UTC

Updated Oct 12, 2022 at 5:26 p.m. UTC

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The rogue trader behind the recent exploit that drained Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Mango Markets of $100 million has sent an ultimatum to the community.

Posting on Mango's governance proposal platform, the exploiter says they want Mango’s treasury to use its $70 million available in USDC to repay the bad debt within the protocol.
This bad debt stems from a bailout that Mango Markets and rival Solana lending platform Solend put together for a large Solana whale that had $207 million in debt spread across multiple lending platforms.
At one time the whale had borrowed 88% of the available USDC on Solend.
The bailout was put together over concern that should the SOL token drop by another 20%, the whale’s positions would be liquidated, which would cause contagion and adversely impact the Solana ecosystem.
As a result of this ongoing issue with Mango Markets, the Wormhole token bridge announced it is pausing transfers from Solana.
Part of the exploiter’s ultimatum seeks a promise from Mango it will not pursue a criminal investigation or freeze his funds.
Mango's MNGO token is down 38% on day.

UPDATE (Oct. 12, 2022 11:13 UTC): Refers to rogue trader as exploiter instead of hacker.

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