Anonymous MEV Bot Operator Refunds $70K in ETH Following Curve Finance Attack

Alchemix Finance has expressed gratitude to an anonymous operator of a Miner Extractable Value (MEV) bot for returning $70,000, or 43.3 ETH, in profits gained from the Curve Finance exploit. This return of funds comes in the wake of a security incident that saw significant losses within the decentralized exchange.

The transaction was confirmed on September 4, with the returned amount valued at approximately $70,600 as the price of ETH hovered around $1,630. The MEV bot operator stated they would be pleased to donate 90% of their profits to assist with recovery efforts.

These profits were generated through an arbitrage strategy while attackers drained liquidity from the Alchemix Ether (alETH/ETH) pool on Curve Finance. In exchange for the returned assets, the MEV operator requested a thank you message to be sent to one of their wallet addresses. The reimbursed funds were subsequently transferred to Alchemix’s mainnet address.

This incident is part of broader recovery actions taken by Alchemix Finance following an exploit that resulted in more than $60 million being siphoned from Curve Finance. The attack was enabled by a bug in Vyper, the programming language employed by Curve to create its smart contracts on Ethereum, leading to vulnerabilities in its liquidity pools.

The exploit impacted various pools associated with Alchemix Finance, JPEGd, and Metronome. It sparked recovery initiatives, discussions regarding MEV practices, falling token prices, and growing anxieties within the decentralized finance (DeFi) community.

Additionally, Curve Finance’s native token, CRV, faced downward pressure due to substantial loans taken by founder Michael Egorov. To prevent liquidation, Egorov resorted to over-the-counter markets to sell significant amounts of CRV, successfully raising funds to repay approximately $80 million in loans.