Two French people suspected of having hacked an American decentralized finance platform, Platypus, for damage estimated at 9.5 million dollars in cryptocurrencies, were arrested on Wednesday in Île-de-France, the police department announced on Saturday. investigator.
It was on a report from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform that investigators from the Central Office for Combating Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC) were notified on Friday February 17 of a possible scam carried out from France targeting the American company Platypus.
The two men, brothers aged 18 and 20, were arrested on Wednesday.
The eldest is suspected of having carried out the scam and his brother of having benefited in part from the stolen money.
At their home, 210,000 euros in cryptocurrency were seized.
They were brought to court on Thursday.
Multi-million dollar instant loans
On February 16, hackers relied on "
flash loans
", instant loans in cryptocurrencies without collateral but repayable a few seconds later, detailed Christophe Durand, deputy head of the investigating office.
They first took out a $44 million loan from a pool of cryptocurrency investors.
Then, a second loan of 41 million dollars from Platypus, with the first loan as collateral.
Then, they used the possibility of "
emergency exit
" from this loan to withdraw the equivalent of 8.5 million dollars, then about a million, explained the commissioner.
In total, the damage to Platypus was assessed at $9.5 million in cryptocurrency.
But following an error on their part, the hackers were only able to get their hands on the equivalent of 270,000 euros.
They spent about 60,000 euros on it.
2.5 million euros recovered
For the American company, the hackers' operation had serious consequences, since once the hacking became known, its "
USP
" cryptocurrency collapsed by "
half of its value
", explained Commissioner Durand.
While in police custody, the eldest of the two brothers tried to explain, according to the commissioner, that he was a "
white hat
" hacker (an ethical hacker who defends citizens and businesses) and that he had wanted to negotiate compensation from the American company for discovering a flaw in their verification system.
Of the $9.5 million stolen, seven million are locked in the virtual world of cryptocurrencies and are "
out of everyone's reach
" and 2.5 million were recovered by Platypus.
