Thala Labs loses, then recovers, $25.5 million
The Thala Labs Aptos-based defi project suffered a $25.5 million theft when an attacker exploited a vulnerability in one of their smart contracts. They paused related smart contracts and froze tokens where they were able, ultimately freezing around $11.5 million in assets. After working with law enforcement and several blockchain security teams, they successfully negotiated the return of the assets, leaving the attacker with a "bounty" of $300,000.