On-chain ransom negotiations show ShibaSwap hackers don't accept low-priced ransoms

Huobi HTX reported that last Friday, a $2.8 million crypto token (mainly dog-themed) was stolen from ShibaSwap, and the stolen assets included about 250 billion KNINE tokens from liquid staking protocol K9 Finance. K9 wants to redeem these tokens and is willing to pay the hackers a bounty. Last Monday, an address marked "k9dev.eth" contacted its "Dear Shibarium Bridge Hacker" on the chain and offered to pay five Ethereum "bounty in exchange for the stolen KNINE tokens." The K9 team's move is probably because they are very eager to avoid hackers selling such a large number of KNINE tokens, as this is likely to cause its price to fall to near zero. The information also attached a bounty contract address to facilitate the transaction and put pressure on the warning that “bounty will start to decrease in seven days”. However, the hacker did not accept such a low offer, responding: "I can't accept 5 Ethereum." The hacker in turn proposed that the ransom must not be less than 50 ETH (about $225,000), adding: "Let me know when you are willing to pay this price."