In a surprising turn of events, the hacker behind the $7.4 million exploit of the DeFi protocol Hundred Finance has begun moving the stolen crypto assets after a year of dormancy.

On May 1, the hacker transferred approximately $800,000 worth of Ether and Tether from Curve’s decentralized exchange (DEX). This activity marks the first significant movement since the initial theft, which saw the hacker provide liquidity on the platform more than a year ago.

Currently, the hacker’s wallet holds around $4.3 million in various cryptocurrencies, including Dai, Wrapped Ether, Frax, and Wrapped Bitcoin.

The initial security breach, reported by Hundred Finance on April 15, 2023, occurred on the layer-2 network Optimism. According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the hacker exploited the exchange rate between ERC-20 tokens and hTOKENS. This manipulation enabled the withdrawal of more tokens than were deposited, a tactic known as a flash loan attack.

Flash loan attacks involve borrowing large sums of uncollateralized funds from lending platforms to manipulate cryptocurrency prices on DeFi platforms. In the Hundred Finance exploit, the hacker secured substantial loans by falsifying the exchange rate.

This incident wasn’t the first time Hundred Finance fell victim to an exploit. In 2022, the protocol faced a reentrancy attack on the Gnosis Chain, resulting in a $6 million loss.

Despite the havoc flash loan attacks have caused in recent years, April 2024 saw a notable decrease in losses from such exploits. CertiK’s report highlighted that only $129,000 was lost to flash loan attacks in April, with the largest single incident causing just $55,000 in damages. This marks the lowest loss amount from flash loan attacks since February 2022.

Overall, crypto hack losses also decreased in April 2024. Security firm PeckShield reported a total loss of $60 million for the month, a sharp decline compared to February and March, which saw losses of $360 million and $187 million, respectively.

This resurgence of activity from the Hundred Finance hacker brings renewed attention to the security challenges within the DeFi space, emphasizing the need for ongoing vigilance and robust security measures.