On February 3rd, an indictment was announced in federal court in Brooklyn (USA), charging Andean Medjedovic (22 years old, Canadian citizen) with online fraud, computer hacking, and attempted extortion after stealing approximately $65 million worth of cryptocurrency from two decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols: KyberSwap Elastic ($47 million) and Indexed Finance ($16 million).

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KyberSwap Elastic platform. (Illustrative image)

Medjedovic is also accused of laundering money from the stolen assets. He is currently at large. The case is being handled by specialized units for financial crime and cybersecurity, with support from law enforcement agencies in the Netherlands and other international organizations.

"Identifying the attacker as Canadian Andean Medjedovic once again confirms that Kyber is not involved in the Kyber Elastic attack and the previous baseless self-hacking rumors. These false rumors have negatively impacted the Kyber community and reputation, as well as the Vietnamese blockchain community. We are grateful for the extremely diligent investigation and tracing efforts of domestic and international organizations, from technology and legal entities to law enforcement agencies," affirmed Tran Huy Vu, CEO and co-founder of Kyber Network.

The head of Kyber also stated that immediately after the incident occurred, Kyber Network made efforts to resolve the issue. To date, Kyber has covered 100% of users' losses.

KyberSwap Elastic is one of Vietnam's decentralized finance platforms based on blockchain technology, which has received significant attention from the international community.

This platform was developed by Kyber Network, Vietnam's most successful startup in 2017, having raised $52 million through an ICO.

For many years, Kyber Network has been known as a leading blockchain startup in Vietnam. Its two founders, Luu The Loi and Tran Huy Vu, were also included in Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2018.

The KyberSwap Elastic attack, which occurred on November 23, 2023, resulted in hackers stealing over $47 million worth of cryptocurrency assets (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Base), all of which were sent to a single wallet address.