Using Nomad Update to Find Slope Factor in Solana Exploit

Solana suffered a heist that cost it $6 million as it emptied more than 8,000 crypto wallets early on the 3rd of August. The latest Solana exploit came a day after Nomad lost about $190 million to a similar hack. Nomad is a cross-chain crypto bridge.

Intensive Investigation Ongoing at Solana

But several investigations have produced an update about the Solana exploit. According to developers on the Solana ecosystem, negligence on the part of Slope, a web3 crypto wallet provider created a loophole for the hackers.

Solana stated that its ecosystem is not to be blamed for the exploit and consequent loss. The Solana foundation did not mince words when it mentioned Slope as the cause. The reason is that most of the wallets affected were connected to it.

Slope responded to Solana by admitting that there were a lot of wallets that lost funds to the hack. Phantom wallets also corroborated what Solana said. Some of its users suffered from the hack also.

According to the investigation, Solana foundation alleged that Slope wallets might have hosted its users’ keys on a centralized server.in addition, other reports have it that the hackers might have found a way into users’ wallets first.

Not Likely a Supply Chain Attack 

In a related development, Solana’s Chief Executive, Anatoly Yakovenko, connected the exploit with an issue with the supply chain. But later communications had Austin Fedora denying that it had anything to do with the supply chain. 

Fedora took to Twitter to say that the hack seem to have impacted desktop wallets. It also affected active degens wallets, mobile wallets, as well as wallets that had received just a transaction ever. He said if it had anything to do with a supply chain attack, then it would be a scary development for web3.

Fedora added that users who have assets in their Slope wallets should probably move them into a safe hardware wallet. As of the time of this report, Solana verified that its investigations are ongoing. It promised that the perpetrators of the hack will be discovered.  

For the exploit on Nomad, there has been some progress in its investigations. The hacker first refunded about $9 million to its platform. They later followed up with $3.8 million worth of ETH, USDT, and USDC. This followed Nomad’s public plea to the hackers.

But it looks like the hackers might not refund all their loot from the bridge. PeckShield, a blockchain security company, said the hackers are already laundering part of the funds by transferring them from one wallet to another.