Coverage for Vanguard/Stars Social Engineering Incident Lossage

I am truly overwhelmed and deeply moved by the incredible support and encouragement the community has shown for this proposal on the forum and in our social channels. Seeing such a positive response means more to me than words can express.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. The community's trust, kindness, and engagement on this proposal not only inspires me but I am sure will also highly motivate the entire Stars and Vanguard teams to keep pushing forward, more committed than ever to everything that's lying ahead of us in 2025.

This journey is not just ours, it's everyone's. With a community as strong and passionate as this one, there’s no doubt what we'll achieve this year. Thank you everyone!

Summary

If passed, this proposal will allocate funds from the Venus Treasury to cover approved Venus community managed budgets (Venus Vanguard, Venus stars) stolen during a social-engineering exploit on November 28, 2024. The attack occurred under the guise of a Business Development call with exploiters posing as a known Venture Capital firm. A police report has been filed and provided to the ZeroShadow.io team as well as the incident details allowing ZeroShadow to validate the incident and take actions.

This proposal addresses the budgets lost in the amount of $681,190 as of November 28, 2024 across BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and zkSync Era. See the “Details” section for detailed token losses, TX IDs, and associated USD values.

Details

On November 28, 2024, a group of malicious actors impersonated a reputable VC fund and scheduled a BD meeting with members of our Growth team. During the call, they exploited remote-access vulnerabilities through a sophisticated zoom hijack and orchestrated a series of unauthorized transactions draining multiple hot wallets used to provide liquidity on DEX’s, performing manual XVS Buybacks and paying for the day to day operational expenses and global activities of the Venus Stars and Vanguard programs. Assets ranging from stablecoins (USDT, USDC, VAI) to staked tokens (BTC, ETH, XVS, THE, BNB, etc.) and cross-chain funds on BNB Chain, Arbitrum and zkSync were stolen.

A formal police report has been filed, and internal forensics, along with ZeroShadow audit logs, corroborate the sequence of events leading to this exploit. We request reimbursement from the Venus Treasury to restore balances impacted by this breach. Below are the main details of each affected account, along with the stolen tokens and approximate USD values (as of November 28, 2024):

1. Account 0x2c7a1398368a38489bb6dc53b79b3e416b531636 (Vanguard Lead LP’s and Funds)

● BNB Chain ○ 0xfdedf5b00dad2ef12b4e4706e79c226e909586b17766cb40cfb7943d8f8e6bb5 → 29,445,966.4653 vUSDT ($727,092.78) ○ 0x1a2bd0724f0005795d01037c0a634b6d6c6f7ad8a65079e43b9fa5b1286edd82 → 1,419.7681 THE ($4,659.23) ○ 0x0a5aeb1f65f9ab4f546bf6ceda26942fb6f4b0b28c767cedaed5fe75dc333a4d → 17.1829 ETH ($61,486.36) ○ 0x4e5592a2a1a8dc65d3e0893b0e2b8b09248bb4bae32080ad4bcef1b6d3302f96 → 302.4376 THE ($992.5) ○ 0x3ea1fe137981884b78ccb32662a73430d8517ffe544f30be8f6c1a13d9794999 → 0.1164 BNB ($76.13) ○ 0xcf8ec3d58332b567e19c47127511548289fddbb69179bd0750bf38448fa9942e → 0.009066 BNB ($5.93) ○ 0xa36de31d00df475cecdcdb1c89c396986053edd3014e7cec410dc15e2ed75415 → 9.1472 WBNB ($5,985.02) ○ 0x3cefdd9ce99911ab9d659caf320d3a5896676104009166155ea55e3aa841d2b9 → 689.7287 FIL ($4,010.27) ○ 0x932ab15ea904dfb2e7d6ba3f42903efedc9347a48bc02129a54f09743f2cc1fe → 0.7648 BTCB ($73,138.4) ○ 0x6aedbaa3651a5b4a5d8af39494d908f8c8610fb4290400efc8f5802efe8fde13 → 2.4513 ETH ($8,771.74) ○ 0x4c3f4fa45442fae0765f607235358a72ce081fb97db815dbf91028c502a9936c → 99.2973 XVS ($929.61) ○ 0x11c4f80e6e0fd2900021a659d3a6d082981dcf2798707660a483276a49331309 → 28,264.7811 qTHE ($17,785.38) ○ 0xd8d216d3daf33eb68f7d2415cd8ed5b899c19898b03dd70c19ddeb0cdd098647 → 4,575,683.8546 QUO ($18,003.58) ○ 0x72f207a7c2837298373f7bfe1fea338b0ae949ec00f15ce70d488f4b12d02d16 → 22,999.5465 liveThe ($26,390.36) ○ 0x3c65d2017ea1f9ee8c81e14a8ff093dd9df8427c8e8c6660cbb40666490023fa → 62.0571 WBNB ($40,603.98) ○ 0xc1cdefc1f1709c182fca40bf5323b3241c02877c8eafe5395ad868e84246cd67 → 4,957.0289 THE ($16,267.41) ○ 0x477c3780b4141fba9dc8256b66329deabbc38cb43b975bb2fba1a4ada3655c85 → 0.004508 BNB ($2.95) ● Arbitrum ○ 0x5253f10dffcdc283b31118596b8d511335c042a531b8d81abd4c519b71541d61 → 8,259.5424 USDT ($8,260.12) ○ 0xfa799078001b39837c1d8ab23b169987f0ca8a03bf005d861aa40489492de59f → 0.006 ETH ($21.47) ○ 0xacc8cbde3280c951bc7f3fe2528dbf876323d4b4a281a21953ae7a5664860705 → 0.0003959 ETH ($1.42) ● Liquidations BNB Chain ○ 0x79d92fe57b197f3ae5b81b4e45bb78f75a5d77c02b8ce418b295e2fc6691d882 → repaid 13 ETH ($45.07k) and $49.52k USDC

2. Account 0xc444949e0054a23c44fc45789738bdf64aed2391 (Venus Stars Operations)

● BNB Chain ○ 0xc9d8860ebbb2a231adce76adf45128f672b8c1b0e3f06033902eb3e25e2b98d9 → 25,400.523 USDT ($25,402.3) ○ 0x6b04c3a323026853d2d38d02cc470481bcd51d097175d8dcf4fea32996654049 → 195,596.6436 VAI ($195,596.6436) ○ 0x0c27c659fd99a10d503370957e1cb2848db9bdad93819f640b34f5c841a86e51 → 2,062.1763 XVS ($19,305.88) ○ 0x3a2d478f1c464537cec662f3d443ab7afba2e7a59651423caeb13abfb931414a → 126.9364 vBNB ($2,038.79) ○ 0x3bfe221e2344039a75274a58a27456ac8006fedc89c78e75fe287f0b5b54a8ef → 11,053.2196 USDC ($11,052.11) ○ 0x687b83e0b12a6cbb391d084e58ad35dbeaf51b25f324f1f9701dd8d2fd60fbd6 → 449.7948 LISTA ($250.1) ○ 0x0a8feb233f51b012626add7da54bf4753e16bbaee0f80bc3b0e0de1a06ccd608 → 13,418.7262 THE ($44,036.04) ○ 0x7955f95f28539d0222b97666c885ba277bbf840c1d1543e3ec949d96ccf300d4 → 49.2453 WBNB ($32,221.2) ○ 0xdd8df85213e14fe3a9b954159faf05de8ed74a26f5c8a5ff8a00582bfb451b03 → 3,657.2303 THE ($12,001.88) ○ 0x25f53a06170ff408cdb57dd73e0acba40e32f4d634aae32fb691677bab559186 → 0.2666 BNB ($174.42)

3. Account 0xdea0b46950ddc377e71800deba8f52456a7e42ee (Vanguard LP’s and Operations)

● BNB Chain ○ 0x15aee8a889b5e128dd85a982365792aeaf70d93993b37968662a548f44b4f442 → 646.947 WBNB ($423,297.44) ○ 0x6ba2ba41fd1340f0e223ff17ff2e59035df86b08572cb2a0fc1a04ea2d101e53 → 16,702.062 THE ($54,810.91) ○ 0x4e59c1162a844435ed8b526e461ca9d84f78d2ff73953fb281fa7da98fdab22b → 22,073.9189 XVS ($206,653.73) ○ 0x06c0b73f6599e0842722eaa60cca25ff2457d5ff0be82e1e86d175d79ce2a3a7 → 108,337.5924 USDT ($108,345.18) ○ 0xdaf24d900c7307feacddd2acba3d158679390c01044f4dc0ea96d9fab2cb0230 → 58,001.5369 USDC ($57,995.74) ○ 0xf9116efc9dda4821172ec4251d30f37da8a8d0eb0d57c24cffc585aa83a2a127 → 0.03 BNB ($19.63) ● ZKsync ○ 0x1ae699a6fd9317f75016042fa52dfebbbfde677c7293bddcaf4892d01bea048b → 226,670.2745 USDC ($226,647.61)

4. Account 0xf80cc452b4531cff69e9cef70d071a6b714d3313 (LP / XVS Buybacks Fund reserve)

● BNB Chain ○ 0x02014fe800bb7dc74b2cbb66be085076388a561fede9b981b066715bae47aaa5 → 76,994.3436 USDT ($76,999.73) ○ 0x816dcdd3bd196f6561427f385006eb24f6bc01f4e72e197df926e9e18723d0c0 → 21,259.8155 USDC ($21,257.69) ○ 0x0587d9185c59ba5b2a30f0973091d454c59dca4982f70c399f89eebaa82035fa → 0.006863 BNB ($4.49)

Budget impact

The following is the financial lossage for each program denominated in USD since the program budgets were originally allocated in stables.

Assets to be issued

Some program activities depended on LP positions that were impacted, therefore the assets are requested to be issued for dual sided liquidity provision:

As you’re aware, this security breach occurred in the course of my work and has had a significant impact on me, resulting in the loss of nearly $1 million in personal assets. Given the circumstances, I would like to request compensation for these losses in the form of XVS tokens rather than in stablecoins.

Receiving compensation in XVS is not only a fair resolution but also aligns with the best interests of the Venus ecosystem. With several high-profile proposals on the horizon that will require the use of the Venus treasury for buybacks and other strategic initiatives, settling this matter in XVS tokens helps preserve critical resources while ensuring that I am made whole. This approach also reaffirms my confidence in Venus and further aligns my interests with the platform’s long-term success.

Conclusion

Operational continuity for Venus Stars and Venus Vanguard are part of Venus community daily business as usual. Within these budgets are stipends and operational funds that are mission critical so I propose first actuating refunds for these budgets and in a following VIP, the MM LP’s and XVS tokens to compensate for the personal losses incurred.