Moola Markets, a DeFi lending protocol, announced that it had lost over USD 9 million worth of its native token, MOO, in a hack.

In response to the attack, the company paused its lending protocol on the Celo blockchain stating that the hacker was able to manipulate the price of MOO tokens to borrow collateral against their positions. 

Subsequently, the company announced that it was willing to negotiate a bounty if the hacker agreed to return the funds. This proposal was promptly accepted by the hacker who returned 93% of the stolen assets and donated a portion of the remainder.

Analyst Quicktake: October is set to become one of the worst months ever with regard to crypto-related theft according to Chainalysis, a crypto-fraud prevention software and analytics provider. This hack comes just a day after Bitkeep , a DeFi and cryptocurrency wallet, lost USD 1 million , and a few days after major exchanges Mango markets and Binance both lost USD 100 million in hacks. Providing hackers with token rewards in exchange for returning the stolen funds seems to be a prevailing trend with these protocols, as Mango Markets was also successful in recovering part of the funds after it offered a bounty.