Ankr exploit victims group alleges the company only reimbursed them 50%

A radical calling itself “Victims of Ankr Exploit” person claimed that its members mislaid implicit 13,000 BNB liquid staking coins (over $4 cardinal worthy astatine the clip of writing) arsenic a effect of the Dec. 2 Ankr exploit, but person not been adequately reimbursed by the Ankr company. According to a Jan. 19 connection from the radical received by Cointelegraph, affected members alleged that they person lone received fractional of the magnitude they lost. The radical has called connected Binance’s Chanpeng Zhao (also known arsenic “CZ”) to enactment unit connected Ankr to get the funds released.

— Alex Soh (@AlexSoh14) January 7, 2023

The radical specifically claimed that a reimbursement program posted by Ankr connected Dec. 20 has been unfair to liquidity providers astatine Wombat exchange. Under this plan, Ankr projected to “partially screen the nonaccomplishment of stkBNB liquidity providers connected Wombat.” Ankr argued that a afloat reimbursement would beryllium unfair due to the fact that “the quality of the mixed liquidity pools” connected Wombat made it hard to find however overmuch liquidity providers had lost.

The Ankr exploit unfortunate radical admitted that Ankr compensated them with 50% of the BNB mislaid successful the attack, but insisted that it should person compensated them 100%.

The radical argued that Ankr has refused to compensate them afloat due to the fact that the stkBNB and BNBx liquid staking tokens mislaid were competitors to Ankr’s ain ankrBNB tokens:

“It is evident that determination is simply a segregation and favoritism of victims that is unjustifiable. And [a] information that retired of X protocols impacted, lone 2 of them (Stader and pSTAKE), nonstop competitors of Ankr, spot their users discriminated arsenic victims.”

Citing a tweet from ZachXBT, they argued that Ankr has the quality to compensate them afloat due to the fact that it recovered 1,559 ETH (approximately $2.4 cardinal worthy astatine the clip of writing) from Huobi Global aft the attacker tried to usage it to currency out.

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The Ankr squad responded to these allegations done a Jan. 25 email sent to Cointelegraph. In the email, the Ankr typical stated that the reimbursement program was “more than generous” to liquidity providers connected Wombat. From the company’s perspective, overmuch of the stkBNB and BNBx losses connected Wombat were owed to mediocre hazard absorption of these rival staking protocols and illiquidity connected Wombat, arsenic they explained:

“50% of each BNBx and stkBNB liquid staking was connected Wombat unsocial owed to Stader and pStake incentives. This represents an evident attraction risk[…]Ankr cannot beryllium held liable for the deficiency of hazard absorption of different pools. To enactment things successful context, Ankr paid Wombat pools successful each 4x much than the aBNBc TVL we had connected Wombat, which is much than generous”

The squad argued further that critics of the program bash not recognize the “flow of money” that led to the nonaccomplishment of funds, stating:

“We person to comprehend what happened and travel the travel of money. The exploiter sold aBNBc connected Wombat against BNB and past against BNBx and stkBNB. Then helium sold BNBx and stkBNB connected different DEX wherever determination was much BNB liquidity[…]In this story, immoderate radical made money.”

The Ankr squad besides argued that it has not recovered capable funds to compensate users, stating that “criminal investigations are ongoing to retrieve portion of the funds, and the magnitude we deliberation we tin retrieve is importantly little than what we paid.”

The Ankr BNB staking protocol was hacked connected Dec. 2, 2022, and the attacker was capable to get $5 cardinal successful crypto from the attack. On Dec. 21, the institution announced that the onslaught had been carried retired by an ex-employee. In the aforesaid announcement, it vowed to enactment up its information practices and reimburse victims.