Two Individuals Arrested in Connection With the Hologram Protocol Hack Orchestrated on June 13

The arrests occurred through the joint efforts of multiple national agencies, including France's Office for the Prevention of Cybercrime (OFAC) in collaboration with the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme (BRI), Europol, the Italian Directorate of Anti-Mafia Investigations, and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS).

French authorities have arrested two individuals in connection with the June 13 Hologram protocol hack, which resulted in losses of €13 million. Multiple national agencies collaborated in the arrests, including France's Office for the Prevention of Cybercrime (OFAC), the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme (BRI), Europol, the Italian Directorate of Anti-Mafia Investigations, and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS). The suspects were located in Italy and will be extradited to France to face charges after a two-month search.

Due to the ongoing investigation, Hologram said the suspects' names "cannot be publicized yet" according to French authorities. However, it promised to "share more information on asset recovery for the Hologram ecosystem as the proceedings develop."

Hologram is an NFT protocol based on Omnichain, which enables efficient cross-chain interoperability by allowing token portability across blockchains while the tokens retain their contract addresses. The criminals' actions wreaked havoc when they manipulated the platform's contracts to mint 1 billion HLG tokens, Hologram's native asset, through nine minting transactions. The asset's price dropped by over 80% hours after the attack due to the inflated supply.

Initial Report From Cybersecurity Firm Linked a Single Bad Actor to the Hack

The protocol teamed up with security firm Halborn to investigate the hack, unearthing revelations of a "disgruntled former contractor" who used their admin access to mint and steal the funds. This bad actor offloaded the exploited tokens in the open market to further profit from their actions. They bridged these assets to Ethereum, on which they dumped a portion. Nearly 200 million tokens were frozen by centralized exchanges.

While investigations from Hologram's side revealed one bad actor, national authorities intervened to find another associate, leading to the news of two arrests. They have also confiscated devices used for illicit activity and a significant amount of assets. As the saga ensues and the criminals face charges soon, more details about the exploit will emerge.