SecondFi urges hacker to return 16.1M ADA after Cardano wallet exploit

SecondFi, the Cardano-focused wallet formerly known as Yoroi Wallet, renewed its bounty offer for the return of 16.1 million ADA stolen in a June exploit that has forced parent company EMURGO to shutter the brand.

"Our standing offer remains open. We urge the party involved to contact us through the channels listed below," SecondFi said in a statement on July 30.

The attack, detected between June 21 and June 23, compromised 374 wallets and drained roughly $2.4 million worth of ADA at then-prices. Independent analytics firm Groom Lake identified digital markers in the attacker's transactions matching methods used by Lazarus Group, the state-sponsored North Korean cybercrime unit, according to the firm's analysis. The breach was traced to a flaw in transaction-signing software that let attackers derive private keys from on-chain data, per the project's incident report.

The exploit has forced EMURGO, the commercial arm that co-founded Cardano, to wind down both the SecondFi and Yoroi brands, with a three-stage compensation plan running through early September. The project's technical team secured another 129 million ADA that had been at risk, transferring those funds to an independent custodian.

Compensation Plan and Brand Wind-Down

EMURGO has funded an asset-recovery wallet and launched a three-stage restitution process. The current stage, running through late July, involves collection and verification of claims from affected customers. Wallet-export tools for surviving assets are scheduled for mid-August, followed by an automated compensation portal powered by zero-knowledge proofs in early September.

A competing forensic analysis from Tibane Labs has disputed parts of the official account, creating uncertainty around which victims will qualify for repayment. The dispute remains unresolved, and no firm distribution date has been set.

ADA Price and Market Impact

ADA traded at $0.1633 as of July 29, up 7.3 percent in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The token bottomed near $0.1387 in mid-July before recovering roughly 18 percent as large holders accumulated more than 30 million ADA over seven days, lifting whale holdings to 5.69 billion ADA, per Santiment data. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA controlled about 25.6 billion coins as of July 13, their largest share since February 2023.

Clearstream added ADA to its regulated custody services on July 7, a sign of continued institutional interest despite the exploit. The restitution mechanism's scheduled launch in August could remove a selling overhang if it ships on time, though the competing forensic report and the Lazarus Group link introduce execution risk. ADA faces its next resistance test at $0.176 to $0.1885, a moving-average band that has capped rallies since spring.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.