Mango Markets Exploiter Provides Ultimatum: ‘Repay Bad Debt’

The rogue trader behind the recent exploit that drained Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Mango Markets of $100 million has sent an ultimatum to the community.

• Posting on Mango's governance proposal platform, the exploiter says they want Mango’s treasury to use its $70 million available in USDC to repay the bad debt within the protocol.
• This bad debt stems from a bailout that Mango Markets and rival Solana lending platform Solend put together for a large Solana whale that had $207 million in debt spread across multiple lending platforms.
• At one time the whale had borrowed 88% of the available USDC on Solend.
• The bailout was put together over concern that should the SOL token drop by another 20%, the whale’s positions would be liquidated, which would cause contagion and adversely impact the Solana ecosystem.
• As a result of this ongoing issue with Mango Markets, the Wormhole token bridge announced it is pausing transfers from Solana.
• Part of the exploiter’s ultimatum seeks a promise from Mango it will not pursue a criminal investigation or freeze his funds.
• Mango's MNGO token is down 38% on day.

Read More: How Market Manipulation Led to a $100M Exploit on Solana DeFi Exchange Mango

UPDATE (Oct. 12, 2022 11:13 UTC): Refers to rogue trader as exploiter instead of hacker.