Verus recovers 4,052 ETH after negotiated bounty deal that lets exploiter keep 1,350 ETH

The exploiter who drained the Verus Ethereum bridge returned 4,052 ETH — roughly $8.5 million — to the protocol, while retaining a portion of the funds as a bounty payment, according to initial reports ^{[1] [2]}.

Multiple outlets report the return came as part of a negotiated bounty deal: Verus paid or agreed to a 1,350 ETH bounty (reported as about $2.8 million) in exchange for the 4,052 ETH recovery; the breach was described as a forged-transfer attack that initially led to losses above $11.5 million ^{[3] [2]}.

Publishers say the bounty approach enabled rapid asset retrieval without pursuing immediate legal action; the reports do not detail further recoveries or ongoing legal proceedings following the deal ^{[3] [1] [4]}.

Verus secured the return of the bulk of the drained ETH through the bounty arrangement, while the exploiter retained the agreed bounty; coverage cites the amounts and structure of the deal but provides limited information about any subsequent remediation or legal steps ^{[1] [3] [4]}.