The UwU Lend protocol has announced a $5 million bounty for anyone who can identify the hacker responsible for two recent exploits, which have resulted in a combined loss of $24 million.

In a June 13 on-chain message, UwU Lend addressed the hacker directly: "Repayment deadline for the funds you stole has passed. 5 Million Dollar bounty to the first person to identify and locate you." This message followed the hacker's failure to return 80% of the stolen funds by the June 12 deadline set by UwU Lend. The $5 million bounty, payable in Ether (ETH), will be awarded before any recovery of funds or legal action.

According to blockchain security firm Cyvers, the same hacker was responsible for both attacks. The hacker's wallet address, "0x841…21f47," was used in both incidents. The initial exploit on June 10 involved a price manipulation attack, resulting in a theft of $20.3 million.

UwU Lend then publicly offered the hacker a deal: return 80% of the funds and keep the remaining 20%, promising to forgo legal action. The hacker did not respond and instead executed a second exploit on June 13, stealing an additional $3.7 million from various asset pools, including uDAI, uWETH, uLUSD, uFRAX, uCRVUSD, and uUSDT.

Despite the ongoing theft, UwU Lend has been actively working to reimburse victims of the first exploit. To date, the protocol has repaid over $9.7 million. This reimbursement process was underway when the second attack occurred, prompting UwU Lend to escalate its efforts to identify the hacker.

Surprisingly, the UWU token has only seen a 20% decrease over the past week, currently trading at $2.51. Despite the significant losses, UwU Lend maintains a market cap of $22.6 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

These incidents highlight the ongoing challenges and risks within the cryptocurrency space. According to a recent report by Crystal Intelligence, nearly $19 billion in cryptocurrencies have been stolen since the first industry hack was reported in June 2011.

The substantial bounty offered by UwU Lend underscores the severity of the situation and the lengths to which the protocol is willing to go to bring the hacker to justice. This move also serves as a reminder of the importance of security and vigilance in the rapidly evolving world of decentralized finance.