The Tornado Cash governance token holders will soon regain their authority over the protocol’s functioning thanks to an unexpected request made by the attacker. The community can now exercise their newfound power to repair and enhance the protocol’s safety measures.
The proposal to return power to the original Tornado Cash governance token holders was approved on May 26th. The plan received 517,000 symbolic votes in favor of the proposal, and none against it. While the protocol was not affected by this resolution, some governance tokens were stolen.
The attacker was able to gain control of the protocol’s governance mechanism and cast 1.2 million votes for a fraudulent proposal. Using this massive sway of the vote, they pushed through other proposals and eventually took control of the governance tokens. Their strategies enabled them to influence the power structure and gain control.
Surprisingly, the attacker contacted the Tornado Cash community a few hours after the breach with a startling suggestion, aimed at regaining control of the cryptocurrency’s governance. This unexpected act piqued people’s interest, leading them to investigate the perpetrator further.
According to Martin Lee, a data journalist at Nansen, the hacker made away with 483,000 TORN tokens, equivalent to around $1.9 million. After some strategic swaps, the attacker was able to exchange $890,000 worth of stolen tokens for 485 ETH, resulting in 39,000 TORN, equivalent to around $160,000.
Compiled by Coinbold
