Hi. This is Sasha, the Project Manager of Puzzle Network.
I’m almost sure you’re reading these messages and watching the situation from the sidelines.
Vladimir was offered terms under which he would receive most of his funds in 100 years, even though they are strategically critical for him and the project right now. As we wrote in the post, the future of the project - which he has devoted most of his career to - depends on these funds.
Vladimir is a kind and genuine person who has helped many team members grow, supported people in difficult moments, and always shared thoughtful advice.
Just like you, I have responsibilities to the people close to me and to our users. Right now, you’ve taken away my faith in the future, but I’m not disappearing - I’m doing everything I can to keep the project alive and support everyone.
If you’re reading this, we can talk. Or please - help save the project and return what was stolen.
To the person who carried out this hack — we’re reaching out to you and would like to discuss the details of a possible deal privately.
We want to draw your attention to the moral side of this situation. You are clearly a professional, but through this action you are destroying the lives and reputations of many people and teams who have spent years building their projects. I’m talking about Waves, Puzzle Swap, CrossCurve, and several others. You’re breaking hopes, plans, and trust. Is it really worth it? Think about it. Do you believe in karma?
You can watch this video to see what despair looks like:
https://youtu.be/OITW-l-GKEk
We are offering you 20% as compensation for your professionalism, and we are ready to discuss YOUR terms.
Join the conversation — we’re waiting:
https://matrix.to/#/!tNMDApcGyjSecZfhCC:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
Hello. Message from Vlad: I'm Vladimir, the main victim of this exploit https://x.com/vlzhr/status/2018992942967574900 https://youtube.com/watch?v=OITW-l-GKEk I ask you to return money to CrossCurve to not ruin 3rd party lives. Please accept their offer to return funds. I can also buy you a beer if you do. Cheers
An important address to the crypto community. We need your support.
On the night of February 1–2, a serious incident occurred: the CrossCurve bridge was hacked.
According to information published by CrossCurve’s official account, the exploit resulted in the theft of funds totaling more than $1.44 million.
CrossCurve is a cross-chain bridge that allows users to move assets between different blockchains. Such systems are a critically important part of the DeFi ecosystem, because liquidity, capital availability and the operation of many projects depend on them.
Scale of the damage
According to the official CrossCurve report:
Total amount of stolen funds: $1,441,892
Of this amount:
$110,000+ - funds from CrossCurve pools
$1,331,000+ - funds from the Units blockchain
Key point:
Approximately $700,000 of the stolen funds belong to our project, Puzzle Network and to the personal funds of Vladimir, the founder and head of the project. These funds are crucial for the future development of the project. An important point that must be mentioned as well..
After the hack, one of the users checked the contract using an AI audit, relying only on publicly available code, without any internal data. At the very beginning of the analysis, an error was immediately found in the address-verification logic, which directly led to this hack.
Address to the CrossCurve team
We want to address the CrossCurve team directly - openly and without accusations.
Yes, this hack occurred.
Yes, it was a third-party attack.
But it is precisely a team’s response to such events that shows what values stand behind a project.
After the incident, Vladimir publicly reached out in the CrossCurve project chat to understand the situation and called for actions based on the same principles he himself had repeatedly followed as a founder - but he was blocked.
Throughout the entire existence of Puzzle Network, Vladimir, its founder, has repeatedly returned funds to users in situations where problems happened, including his own money. He always chose the path of responsibility and honesty, because he realised that user trust is more important than anything else.
This is about the responsibility of an infrastructure project to the ecosystem.
Is the CrossCurve team ready to be honest with its users and partners in the same way that Vladimir has always been?
Are you ready to take a step forward and return the stolen funds in order to preserve trust in the project and in the ecosystem as a whole?
Address to the community
If you are a developer, investor, DeFi participant, or an ordinary person for whom these principles of openness and honesty matter. Please, do not stay on the sidelines: help spread this information, raise the issue publicly and express your own position in favor of a responsible resolution of the situation.
https://x.com/martino_mansory/status/2018631410693648788?s=46
Hello. It’s Puzzle project. We beg you sending back the stolen funds, please, at least the part stolen from Puzzle (740k). We were so much away from Crosscurve itself, that we feel absolutely lost now, this loss will be fatal. Please, please, pleased, mind sending back the funds. I beg you.
Hello! It's still Puzzle team. We please you to send at least 740k back, we beg you! 740k of stolen assets have beed used in Puzzle by our community. Please please. Please return at least this part of the money, we beg you. This event would break lives otherwise. Please!
Hello,
The tokens you received from 0xAc8f44ceCa92b2a4b30360E5bd3043850a0FFcbE has come from a smart contract exploit, and was taken unrightfully from users. We do not believe this was intentional on your part and there was no malicious intent and hope for cooperation in returning the funds.
In accordance with our SafeHarbor WhiteHat policy we offer up to a 10% bounty for funds rescued by WhiteHats, this makes you eligible to keep up to 10% if the remainder is returned.
Please reach out to ceo@eywa.fi for coordination.
Or if anonymity is preferred please return stolen tokens directly to 0x624E0Bd3114e333375f10883B0D7621547939cD5 to settle this matter.
If the funds are not returned or no contact was established within 72 hours, we will have to assume there is malicious intent and treat this as a judicial matter.
Failure to return within the stated timeframe will result in immediate escalation, including but not limited to:
• Formal criminal referrals across applicable jurisdictions
• Civil litigation to recover the full amount plus damages
• Active cooperation with centralized exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, etc.), bridge operators, and USDC issuer (Circle) to freeze or seize assets
• Public disclosure of wallet addresses, transaction traces, associated addresses, and any attribution findings
• Collaboration with law enforcement and chain analytics firms (Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic)
Time remaining: 72 hours from block 24364392.
I have filed a criminal complaint for the 20,107.8 USDC you stole from my address (0x05808Cf9F8aAcFD6a2c2A879326593644F9a339e) using AugustusV6 exploit. Send back 90% of the stolen crypto back to the same address, keep 10% for yourself as a bounty, and I will back off and you can live a free person who's quite a bit wealthier. I need the money back by 31 December, 23:59 UTC. If it's not sent back by then, my offer of you keeping 10% is revoked, and the authorities will proceed with the necessary legal actions.