In a public statement on Twitter on Tuesday, Cipher Protocol contributor “Hook” admitted to stealing more than $184,077 in community funds to feed his growing gambling habit.
“I know nothing I say or do will help him—he'll probably end up rotting in jail,” the fake developer wrote. “To address the elephants in the room the allegations are true, I took the money and gambled with them. I did not flee with him; I did not run away from anyone else.
Hawke's public confession was sparked by a controversial investigation into the Cipher Protocol's Discord server. Cipher Protocol is a marginless decentralized exchange on the Solana blockchain.
First of all, I want to deeply apologize to all the affected parties, I know that nothing will be answered at this time, and I have to face the consequences. [and] I am also not trying to harm myself in any way, shape or form,” Hoke wrote. But this is the end of a snowball into a crippling gambling addiction and possibly many other psychological factors that have gone unchecked for too long.
In the affidavit, Hoke said the circumstances leading to the theft of the Cipher Protocol date back to an unknown incident at the first Solana Breakpoint Conference in November 2021.
“The victims were my brother and Max from Mango Dao,” Hoke wrote. “Coincidentally, what someone did to me and my brother is the same thing I did to Max.”
The October 2022 hack of Mango Markets allowed thieves to make off with $100 million in funds.
According to Hoke, when an unnamed earlier project never got off the ground, he started working with the Cipher Protocol, which offers decentralized positions and derivatives markets and lending and borrowing services.
“I found my footing with Cypher,” he recalled. “These people became family to me, I loved them and our mission, I worked and worked, tried to innovate in the DX design space, failed, worked a little and broke.”
Barrett, a major contributor to the Cipher Protocol, subsequently tweeted details of the theft, including Hoke's wallet address, saying the theft occurred over 36 withdrawal transactions over a period of months.
Barrett wrote: “This is very sad for me. “I never thought that this could be the main contributor that continued after this [Mango] Be the person who looted the money from the ransom contract to use it to rebuild the project.
According to a document shared by Barrett's assets stolen from the Cipher Redemption Contract, they include ETH, RLB, ORCA, RAY, USDT, USDC, BONK, JitoSOL, mSOL and WSOL. According to the document, $314,674 in USDT, USDC and Solana (SOL) were sent to Binance by Hoak.
As Barrett explained, the theft was first discovered when a member of the Cipher Protocol's Discord server reported that they were unable to withdraw their funds, which Hoak said would be resolved. However, the user reported that they were unable to log out after the hook deadline was reached.
“I reached out to law enforcement with the information in the document below,” Barrett said, posting a link to a Google Docs document with extensive details about the theft.
Taking to Twitter, Internet sleuth ZackXBT claimed to know Hoke, who he said helped the Cipher Protocol team exploit in 2023. As a result of this collaboration, ZackXBT claimed to have Hoke's personal information.
When asked by Decrypt ZachXBT if he intended to share that information with law enforcement, he replied, “Yes, as necessary.”
Hawke wrote: “I have no energy left at present, and considering that no one wants anything to do with me, I believe there is no way out after all this, and indeed it is over for me.” “Everything that comes after this is in God's hands.”
“Sorry to offend,” he concluded on Twitter.
Hoke and Barrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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