Uniswap LP Hit With Phishing Attack Totaling $3.5M in Ether

A hacker, or group of hackers, executing a phishing campaign on a major Uniswap V3 liquidity pool (LP) has made off with roughly 3,278 ether worth of NFT positions ($3,563,644).

Detected Monday by several users including Binance’s threat intelligence department, the hacker managed to impersonate Uniswap’s website and dupe the LP provider into signing malicious transactions.

Uniswap’s liquidity positions on its third iteration are represented as NFTs which enable users to utilize them as collateral to receive a loan paid out in stablecoins and blue-chip assets.

All but 70 ether ($76,900) have been laundered through crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, according to on-chain data of the address identified as the attacker.

It appears the victim is part of a much wider attack that targeted roughly 73,399 addresses by sending a malicious token – acting under the false pretense as a UNI airdrop – in an attempt to get users to sign, according to MetaMask security analyst Harry Denley.

The exact amount taken from the campaign is not yet known. Blockworks attempted to contact Uniswap but did not receive a reply by press time.

“A phishing attack that resulted in some liquidity pool NFTs being taken from individuals who approved malicious transactions,” Uniswap founder Hayden Adams later confirmed in a follow-up tweet. “Totally separate from the protocol. A good reminder to protect yourself from phishing and not click on malicious links.”

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said late Monday he had spoken with Uniswap’s team and assured users the protocol was “safe.” “The attack looks like … a phishing attack. Both teams responded quickly. All good. Sorry for the alarm,” the CEO tweeted.

The price of UNI, the protocol’s native token, is down more than 11% on the day, from $6.29 to $5.56, exchange data shows.

Sam Martin contributed to reporting.