Wormhole initially included its own hacker in 670 million token airdrop

Cross-chain protocol Wormhole W +17.97% initially allocated tokens to wallets that belong to one or more hackers from its 2022 exploit during its latest airdrop event.

“Wormhole forgot to exclude the exploiter from the airdrop,” noted a pseudonymous crypto user called Pland on X, pointing to addresses confirmed on the project's eligibility checker.

Around four addresses associated with the hack were allocated over 31,600 W tokens, worth around $38,000.

While the tokens were initially allocated to these addresses, they have now been removed from the allocation, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The addresses belonged to the hacker that siphoned 120,000 ETH from the interoperability protocol in 2022. The hacked amount, worth around $323 million at the time, made the exploit one of the largest hacks in decentralized finance history.

Wormhole’s airdrop event, which gained considerable traction in the crypto community since the initial announcement, has seen  $1.25 billion worth of its W token traded since the event began, according to data from CoinGecko. 

W token’s price, which rose as high as $1.66, continued to fluctuate throughout the day. It currently stands at $1.21 as of publication time.