CEO of DeFi Insurer, Nexus Mutual, Loses US$ 8M In A Targeted Attack

An unknown attacker drained 370,000 NMX tokens from Hugh Karp, CEO and founder of the DeFi insurance firm Nexus Mutual. The amount stolen is equivalent to US$ 8M.

The firm announced the attack on Monday 14 UTC. The subject gained remote access to Karp’s personal computer and modified the Metamask extension, which facilitates web applications to communicate with the Ethereum blockchain.

Immediately, the attacker, who apparently is also a member of the firm, drained an amount equivalent to $8 million by implementing a different extension — tricking Karp into signing a different transaction, and sending the funds to the attacker’s address.

According to the investigations, the attacker is a member of the firm, and only Mutual members can receive NMX. But the firm hasn’t “completely identified” the subject. Although, weeks ago, the attacker completed a KYC (Know Your Customer) — a process that financial institutions do to verify their client’s identity.

The attacker has already converted some of the stolen 370,000 NMX tokens into 334ETH — which is equivalent to US$ 200,000.

Besides, according to data from Coinmarketcap, the price for the NMX token fell a considerable amount since the announcement was made, now at -18,40% by the time of writing.