“When Wintermute, a cryptocurrency market maker, lost $160 million due to a hack, concerns related to the repayment of debt worth $189.4 million surfaced. However, in an exciting turn of events, Wintermute paid back its largest debt due Oct. 15, involving a $92 million Tether loan issued by TrueFi” [Sarkar, A. Wintermute repays $92M TrueFi loan on time despite suffering $160M hack. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
But Wintermute, post-hack, is not out of the woods as of yet. They still must repay:
- $75 million in USDC and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) to Maple Finance, and
- $22.4 million (coin not specified) to Clearpool.
So while Wintermute repaid TrueFi $92 million, Wintermute is still in debt some $97.4 million.
"Loan details show that Wintermute Trading had borrowed $92.5 million for a term period of 180 days. James Edwards from Libre Blockchain suspects that 'some of the funds from their recent ‘hack’ contributed to the payback” [Sarkar, supra].
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Most crypto investors probably never heard of Wintermute Trading before the Sept. 20 $160 million hack, but that does not reduce their significance within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The London-based algorithmic trading and crypto lending firm also provides liquidity to some of the largest exchanges and blockchain projects. As a crypto-native trading firm, meaning digital assets have been its core since its inception in July 2017, Wintermute’s expertise in the sector is attested by $25 million in funding from global venture capital investors like Fidelity Investments, Pantera Capital and Blockchain.com Ventures. [Pechman, M. The impact of the Wintermute hack could have been worse than 3AC, Voyager and Celsius — Here is why. (Accessed September 22, 2022)].
[Nagoda, K. Wintermute Hacked - Loss of $160 Million. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
In the immediate aftermath of the hack, Wintermute made claim that they “were solvent with twice over that in equity left” [wishful cynic @EvgenyGaevoy. Tweet. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
He further explained that 90 different assets were stolen with only two of the hits were worth between $1 million and $2.5 million. The takings from the remaining 88 were worth under $1 million each" [Subhasish. Crypto Market Maker Wintermute Attacked; Loses $160M. (Accessed September 22, 2022)].
[Nagoda, supra].
This hack is not without its own drama as in late September, 2022, a little known cyber sleuth alleged the hack was conducted by an internal party. James Edwards, on Medium claimed: “The relevant transactions initiated by the EOA [externally owned address] make it clear that the hacker was likely an internal member of the Wintermute team” [Librehash (a/k/a Edwards, J.) Analysis of the Wintermute Hack: An Inside Job. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
“His theory has, however, yet to be corroborated by other blockchain security experts, although following the hack last week, there were some rumors in the community that an inside job could’ve been a possibility. The fact that @wintermute used the profanity wallet generator and kept millions in that hot wallet is negligence or an inside job. To make things worse the vulnerability in profanity tool was disclosed a couple of days ago.” [Quarmby, B. Cyber sleuth alleges $160M Wintermute hack was an inside job. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
In fact, nonetheless, "Blockchain security firm BlockSec has debunked a conspiracy theory alleging the $160 million Wintermute hack was an inside job, noting that the evidence used for allegations is 'not convincing enough” [Quarmby, B. Wintermute inside job theory ’not convincing enough’ — BlockSec. (Accessed October 16, 2022)].
As previously stated in Cointelegraph’s first article on the matter, Wintermute has strongly refuted Edwards’ claims and has asserted that his methodology is full of inaccuracies. [Id].
