The ZKsync Security Council has issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding the return of stolen assets, with an offer of a 10% bounty to the hacker.

This governing body is tasked with upholding the security of the platform. ZKsync In a timely response to the recent security incident, the ZKsync Security Council posted an on-chain message directed at the hacker.

To foster an amicable resolution, the ZKsync Security Council announced that they would provide a 10% bounty if the hacker agrees to return 90% of the exploited funds, according to a statement made on X, a popular social media platform.

The ZKsync Security Council outlined the distribution plan for returning funds, detailing that over 44 million ZK tokens along with 1,021.3 ETH would be sent to addresses controlled by the Council, in addition to 766 ETH redirected to a separate Layer 1 Ethereum address managed by them.

A direct message from the ZKsync Security Council to the hacker reads:

To amicably resolve this issue under the principles of safe harbor, we are offering a 10% reward for your assistance if you can successfully return 90% of the funds involved in this exploit. Specifically:

1⃣ Sending 44,687,278.5988 ZK tokens to…

— ZK Nation (@TheZKNation) April 21, 2025

According to the official announcement, the timeframe for returning the funds is a strict 72 hours, commencing from the moment the message was transmitted via the Ethereum network.

Any funds sent to the specified addresses will not be impacted by existing transaction filters that are currently blocking transactions from accounts that hold the stolen assets. The returned amounts must land at the identified ZKsync Era and Ethereum addresses before the specified deadline.

If the complete amount of ZK tokens and ETH is returned by the given deadline, the ZKsync Security Council will publicly acknowledge the resolution and recognize the hacker’s collaboration, effectively closing the case without pursuing further action.

The Council has clearly stated that should the funds not be returned in time, the situation will be escalated to law enforcement to initiate a thorough criminal investigation.

The ZKsync security team has identified a theft of $5 million stemming from a breach of an admin account.

Recently, the ZKsync security team disclosed on social media that approximately $5 million in ZK tokens had been pilfered from an compromised admin account, indicating that the attacker seized control of unclaimed tokens linked to the ZKsync airdrop.

Despite the incident, the project reassured users that their funds were secure and never in jeopardy. It was emphasized that both the ZKsync protocol and the ZK token contract are intact, with no additional tokens facing risk.

This breach resulted in a notable 20% drop in the price of ZK, likely due to the hacker liquidating the tokens they had stolen.

ZKsync Developed by Matter Labs, ZKsync serves as a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. The project's airdrop last year, which had a total supply of 21 billion tokens, attracted some criticism regarding perceived inequalities in distribution and the team’s failure to prevent Sybil farmers from participating.