🚨 ZkLend Hacker's $9.6M Heist Goes Up in Smoke! Phishing Scam Snags Stolen ETH 🚨

From Hack to Heartbreak: 2,930 ETH Vanishes in a Phishing Fiasco

Hold onto your hats, crypto fans! The notorious zkLend exploiter, who swiped a cool 2,930 ETH, just got played like a fiddle in a jaw-dropping phishing scam. They thought they were slick, trying to launder the loot through what they believed was Tornado Cash. But guess what? It was a fake site, and poof! All that ETH vanished into thin air!

Desperate Pleas and Apologies: Hacker's Humbling Moment

According to a hot-off-the-press post on X by the Consensys-backed De.Fi Antivirus Web3 crew, the attacker, in a moment of sheer panic, dumped the stolen funds into a bogus Tornado Cash site. On-chain data spilled the beans, showing the hacker's frantic message to zkLend's deployer, spilling the beans on their epic fail. "I tried to move funds to Tornado, but I used a phishing website, and all the funds have been lost. I am devastated," they confessed. They even had the audacity to apologize for the hack and begged zkLend to go after the phishing scammers instead.

🚨BREAKING: ZKLEND HACKER GOT REKT🚨

2,930 $ETH, snatched in the zkLend hack, got yeeted into a fake Tornado Cash site. Now, the hacker's left holding the bag, reaching out to zkLend's deployer with nothing left to show for their dirty deeds.

ZkLend's $9.6M Nightmare: From Hack to Phishing Disaster

The zkLend exploit, which went down on Feb. 12, saw over $9.6 million in Ethereum (ETH) swiped right from under their noses. In a last-ditch effort to play nice, the Starknet-based lending protocol threw the hacker a bone, offering a 10% reward to return the rest of the loot by Feb. 14. But the hacker? They ghosted the deadline, leaving zkLend no choice but to call in the big guns.

Law Enforcement and Security Experts Join the Hunt

ZkLend cranked up the heat, bringing in the cavalry from the Starknet Foundation, StarkWare, and Binance Security to track down the stolen funds. But just when you thought things couldn't get any wilder, the stolen ETH got snatched by a phishing scam, throwing a massive wrench in the recovery plans.

ZkLend Hack: A Symptom of a Larger Crypto Crisis

The zkLend attack isn't just a one-off; it's part of a skyrocketing trend of high-stakes crypto heists. Immunefi's Q1 2025 report dropped the bomb, revealing that the first three months of 2025 were the worst ever for crypto security breaches, with hackers making off with a mind-blowing $1.64 billion. The zkLend hack? It was the fifth-biggest exploit of the quarter.

DeFi and CeFi Under Siege: A Tale of Two Worlds

Decentralized finance protocols took a beating, losing $106.8 million across 38 incidents, with Ethereum and BNB Chain in the crosshairs. While DeFi was getting hammered left and right, centralized finance platforms only saw two hits, but those were doozies, racking up a staggering $1.5 billion in losses. Buckle up, crypto world, because it's a wild ride out there!