A whitehat hacker returned over 90% of $190K stolen from Renegade within 45 minutes, citing user protection amid weak protocol security.
A whitehat hacker returned more than 90% of $190K stolen from decentralized exchange Renegade within 45 minutes of exploiting a vulnerability. The hacker cited the need to protect DeFi users despite criticism of the initial action, which targeted a flaw described as “tooooo simple and bad.”
Renegade had offered a 10% bounty to avoid legal action, a common practice under frameworks like the Security Alliance’s Safe Harbor. The exploit stemmed from deployment code failing to assign an owner and a faulty migration in April 2025 software updates.
The incident highlights ongoing security risks in DeFi, where hackers have stolen $17B over the past decade, per DefiLlama. North Korean state-backed hackers were noted for refusing negotiations in similar cases.