THORChain has fully recovered from two summer attacks that exposed millions of dollars in user funds, as announced on Thursday.
THORChain was able to establish a five-step recovery plan as a result of the concurrent audits conducted by cybersecurity firms Trail and Bits and Halborn. Contributors to THORChain report that the protocol is now fully operational following a restart that restored access to all major cryptocurrency integrations and cross-chain trading functionalities.
Along with the audit, THORChain stated that it has commissioned Immunefi, a leading bug bounty platform for the DeFi sector, to manage a bounty program for identifying new vulnerabilities as they emerge.
The introduction of THORChain earlier this year was heralded as a watershed moment in the evolution of decentralized exchanges. However, in July, the network suffered two multimillion-dollar security breaches, the first of which resulted in a $7.6 million Ether (ETH) exploit that sparked widespread outrage. As reported by Cointelegraph, network activity was paused as developers assessed the degree of the damage.
A little more than a week later, a white hat attacker emptied the protocol of around $8 million in ETH, but later requested a 10% prize for restoring the cash. The two thefts rounded off a particularly trying month for THORChain, with even its most ardent supporters asking for a scaling back of the project’s objectives.
Thorchain has had a terrible month, there is no way around it. Bleh, The project’s pace must be reduced. Now is the time to adopt the turtle technique. Regardless, I remain a fervent supporter and am relieved that these concerns are being exposed during chaosnet. https://t.co/gcWCyFYuTI July 23, 2021 — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees)
Security breaches are nothing new in the cryptocurrency sector, with cybercriminals increasingly using DeFi as an attack vector. Approximately $1.2 billion has been lost to DeFi exploits, according to industry insiders. This figure excludes Cream Finance’s recent nine-figure exploit, which was hit by a big flash loan attack on Wednesday.
