Verus Bridge Hacker Returns $8.5M ETH, Keeps $2.8M as Bounty

The attacker behind the Verus bridge exploit has returned 4,052 Ether, worth about $8.5 million, to the project's team wallet after Verus offered a 1,350 ETH bounty for the recovery of most of the stolen funds.

The return represents about 75% of the stolen funds, with the exploiter retaining 1,350 Ether (ETH), worth about $2.8 million as a bounty, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield on Friday.

Verus had offered the bounty a day earlier, saying it would treat the retained ETH as a reward if the exploiter returned 4,052.4 ETH to the team address within 24 hours.

The recovery shows how some crypto projects try to negotiate directly with exploiters to recover stolen funds, though such deals do not necessarily prevent law enforcement or third parties from taking action.

The recovery comes days after the Verus-Ethereum bridge was drained in a forged cross-chain transfer exploit, adding to a string of bridge and decentralized finance (DeFi) attacks that have kept crypto security concerns high in 2026.

DeFi hacks topped $600 million in April

DeFi hacks surged to a cumulative $634 million worth of value stolen in April, data aggregator DefiLlama shows. The $280 million Drift Protocol exploit and the $293 million Kelp exploit represented the largest incidents of the month. 

Total hacked by monthly sum, all-time chart. Source: DefiLlama

Losses have fallen sharply in May, with DefiLlama data showing roughly $38 million stolen so far this month.

Related: Crypto VC funding plunges to $659M in April, hits near two-year low

Still, cryptocurrency hacks remain one of the biggest hurdles halting mainstream blockchain adoption.

During the past decade, crypto hackers stole over $17 billion across 518 recorded incidents, with the majority stemming from compromised private keys, alongside phishing and other credential-based attacks, Cointelegraph reported on April 21. 

Magazine: The legal battle over who can claim DeFi’s stolen millions