Mango Markets hacker arrested

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the arrest of Avraham Eisenberg, who admitted to having stolen nearly $110 million in an attack against decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Mango Markets, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The theft was facilitated through artificial manipulation of MNGO Perpetuals pricing, said FBI agent Brando Racz, who led the investigation on the case. "Because Mango Markets allows investors to borrow and withdraw cryptocurrency based on the value of their assets on the platform, the increase in the value of the MNGO Perpetuals Eisenberg had purchased allowed Eisenberg to borrow, then withdraw, approximately $110 million worth of various cryptocurrencies from Mango Markets, which came from deposits of other investors in the Mango Markets exchange," Racz said. Eisenberg's scheme was noted by blockchain security firm CertiK to be leveraged in manipulating other cryptocurrency platforms, including Lodestar and Moola Market. "In both cases, the attacker borrowed the illiquid native token of the lending platform, manipulated the price higher, and then used this newly-inflated value of their collateral to borrow more of the protocols assets," said a CertiK expert.