- 79thVault recovered 15,000 of the 16,249 BNB, about 92%, stolen when its 79AU PancakeSwap pool was drained on October 7.
- 79thVault plans to return the funds and burn the resulting LP tokens.
- NEAR Intents recently received a full refund following a hack that cost it $3.8 million.
79thVault has recovered 15,000 BNB from the hacker who looted its 79AU liquidity pool on October 7.
The hacker returned roughly 92% of the 16,249 BNB that went missing. Stolen crypto is almost never recovered, making the return a rare win.
How much did the 79Vault hacker return?
The 79thVault team confirmed on X that the hacker who looted its 79AU liquidity pool and made off with over 16,000 BNB returned 92% of it (15,000 BNB), linking an on-chain transaction for the recovered coins. 79thVault plans to put the BNB back into its liquidity pool and permanently burn the LP tokens that result.
The attack began on October 7 when an operator wallet pulled 2.01 million 79AU tokens out of the project’s PancakeSwap pool.
The perpetrator made seven transactions between 07:25 and 08:25 UTC to fully extract the funds and then sold them for BNB through roughly 95 trades.
The pool’s USDT reserves dropped from about $15.2 million to $3.9 million. The sale of the 2.01 million tokens generated about 16,249 BNB, worth around $12.5 million.
79thVault blamed the hack on “weaknesses in account permission management,” in its October 8 statement. However, reports state that the 79AU contract held an OPERATOR_ROLE function capable of moving tokens from the pool and rewriting its reserves and that permission was later revoked.
How much can Bitget get back from its hack?
Two incidents similar to the 79thVault refund have occurred in two weeks, showing that when the attacker can be identified and pressured, exchanges can recover their money.
Cryptopolitan reported that the NEAR Intents attacker sent back the entire $3.8 million stolen about a day after general manager Alex Shevchenko posted the attacker’s wallet addresses and a 48-hour ultimatum.
“We have identified you, sir,” Shevchenko wrote.
However, it is much more complicated to recover money from heists tied to state-linked actors. Bitget’s CEO Gracy Chen has stated that she is “not very optimistic” about recovering the $388 million stolen from her exchange last month.
She referred to the February 2025 Bybit hack, where only about 3.5% of roughly $1.5 billion was ever frozen. Chen said North Korea may be behind the Bitget breach.
Cryptopolitan reported that Drift Protocol’s $285 million exploit was also linked to North Korean actors. More than six months later, and a majority of the funds are still lost. Notably, much of it was laundered through Tornado Cash.
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FAQs
How much did 79thVault recover from the hack?
79thVault said it recovered 15,000 BNB from the attacker, about 92% of the 16,249 BNB (roughly $12.5 million) drained from its 79AU pool on October 7.
How was the 79AU token drained?
An operator wallet moved 2.01 million 79AU tokens out of the PancakeSwap pool and sold them for BNB, an incident Defimon Alerts flagged as a suspected private-key compromise or insider activity tied to a since-revoked OPERATOR_ROLE function.
Why have the Bitget and Drift hacks recovered so little?
Both are linked to North Korean actors who launder funds rather than negotiate. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she is "not very optimistic" about recovering the $388 million lost, citing Bybit's roughly 3.5% freeze rate, while most of Drift's stolen funds remain untraced after more than six months.
Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.
Hannah Collymore
Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration.
