Indexed Finance Thwarts Two Hijacking Attempts and Plans to Compensate Hack Victims

According to Cointelegraph, Indexed Finance, an Ethereum-based project that experienced a $16 million hack in 2021, has successfully prevented two hijacking attempts. The project's decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) will be returned to its founders, who plan to allocate the remaining treasury to victims of the 2021 hack. Laurence Day, a former core contributor, shared the efforts of the Indexed community in overcoming two hijacking attempts on the remaining treasury of the Indexed DAO in a thread on X (formerly Twitter). Both attackers acquired significant amounts of the protocol's NDX token and aimed to take control of the DAO's approximately $120,000 in digital asset holdings through malicious proposals. The initial proposal, lacking a title or description in an apparent effort to avoid detection, was thwarted as Day and fellow community members mobilized the Indexed DAO for votes against it. The attacker's proposal neared approval within an hour, but sufficient 'No' votes were cast to prevent its passage. Anticipating the possibility of a copycat attack, the Indexed DAO approved a 'poison pill' proposal, granting them the authority to burn the remaining treasury funds if deemed necessary to deter potential attackers. Upon the anticipated second attack, the assailant initially sought to negotiate for 50% of the remaining treasury, as revealed in on-chain messages. Indexed founder Dillon Kellar responded by proposing $10,000 in DAI stablecoins issued by MakerDAO and warned of burning the entire treasury if the attacker refused. With only four hours left until Kellar's ultimatum, and following an attempt to counter-negotiate for $17,000, the attacker accepted the original offer and withdrew their malicious proposal. Authority over the DAO will now return to a multisig controlled by Day, Kellar, and the pseudonymous co-founder PR0, with plans to compensate victims of the 2021 hack using the remaining treasury funds.