CipherCore contributor admits to stealing $260K and gambling

An anonymous major contributor to the Solana exchange cipher protocol has admitted to stealing and gambling away $260,000 worth of the project's cryptocurrency from last year's $1 million exploit.

“The allegations are true, I took the money and gambled with them. And I did not flee with him; And no one else escaped.” wrote a contributor who goes by “Hook” in a public statement shared on a May 14 X post.

Anonymous Cipher contributor “Barrett” previously filed a document on X alleging that the Hok-owned wallet made 36 transactions involving various amounts of Ether (ETH), Bonk (BONK), Wrapped Solana (wSOL), and other cypher redemption contracts. A total of around 260,000 dollars.

“I never thought this would be possible, that there would be a major contributor left after the exploit to try and rebuild the project that took money out of the ransom contract,” Barrett wrote on X .

They added that they reported Hack's actions to law enforcement.

“Nothing I say or do is likely to make any difference — except maybe rot in prison,” Hoke wrote in the statement.

Hoke said their actions were “the culmination of what turned into a crippling gambling addiction” and “a number of other psychological conditions that have gone unchecked for far too long.”

He said that after a series of personal and work issues, he contacted Cypher, but “failed to innovate in the DX design space.”

“I worked and I worked,” wrote Hack. “I failed, I worked a little and broke.”

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“I let so many things build up in my head for so long, I let them consume me,” Hoke said.

“Late last year and early this year I lost it completely to the point where trying to hold it together was affecting everything in my life, distancing myself from long-term friends, family, not being able to meet deadlines. I have a personality disorder myself, so they named it. ” they wrote.

In the year In August 2023, an exploit compromised the cipher protocol for – at the time – $1 million worth of Solana (SOL) and US Dollar Coin (USDC).

The protocol was able to block $600,000 worth of stolen crypto, later created a ransom note and a recovery plan to reimburse users for their stolen funds.

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