Kyber Network’s workforce leans 50% one month after $49M exploit.

Decentralized financial protocol KyberSwap Group has “regrettably” reduced its workforce by 50% to keep the company's business afloat following a $48.8 million exploit in November.

“We have unfortunately reduced our workforce by 50%. The decision to part ways with many members of our team was heartbreaking,” Cyber ​​Network CEO Victor Tran said on December 24.

Last month, KyberSwap faced unprecedented challenges due to a rubber exploit. Despite this, I am pleased to report that our core business, including our aggregator and limit order functions, remains strong.

Additionally, we recently launched our Zap API, a…

— Victor Tran (@vutran54) December 25, 2023

Daffy's company, however, said it will create a “volunteer database” to help departing employees seek new opportunities in the Web3 space.

I am delighted to have the privilege of working with Kyber's talented team. However, I will be a Kiber student next month.

I wish I could build on Solana next year, taking inspiration from Kiber alumni like @weremwe https://t.co/2MCTejFJQb .

— Jume ◉ (@0xJume) December 25, 2023

To slow down capital spending, Tran Kyber Network has temporarily suspended its Liquid Protocol initiatives and the KyberAI project.

The CEO, however, emphasized that core business, including KyberSwap's Aggregator and Limit Order functions, continues.

“Furthermore, we will soon open our Zap API, an innovative development that will enable dApps, wallets and other projects to provide their users with a convenient gateway to access DeFi's liquidation protocols,” Tran added.

But now the company says it is looking to refund customers affected by the exploitation in November.

To facilitate that process, the Kyber Network plans to distribute the Treasury Bills Program, which began on December 20, on February 1, 2024 (stable coin in US dollars). Affected users should register for a fee between January 11 and January. 23, 2024.

We are doing our best and we are making a lot of sacrifices for this https://t.co/7DRWANAq7H

— Victor Tran (@vutran54) December 20, 2023

Almost $49 million in reference value has been confirmed for affected users from the original KyberSwap exploit – but affected users will receive only 60% of that value, according to Kyber.

After the first exploit, an additional $6.6 million was stolen from front-running bots.

The Kyber team initially tried to negotiate a bounty deal with the hacker, but they demanded full control over the company, including all of Kyber's assets and its governance structure, KyberDAO.

Related: KyberSwap DEX hacker sends message on chain: Be good, or else

The hacker promised to buy the company for a reasonable price, but the Cyber ​​team apparently rejected the offer.

DeFi expert Doug Colquitt said the attacker took advantage of “indefinite financial constraints” to carry out the Nov. 22 hack, which he described as a “sophisticated and carefully developed smart contract exploit” against multiple networks running CyberSwap pools.

Funds were taken from Avalanche, Polygon and Ethereum and layer-2 networks Arbitrum, Optimism and Base.

KyberSwap operates on the Kyber Network, a blockchain-based liquidity hub that integrates liquidity across multiple blockchains and enables the exchange of tokens without intermediaries.

Magazine: This is your brain on crypto: Substance abuse grows among crypto traders