A hacker responsible for stealing $68 million in cryptocurrency has indicated willingness to return the funds to the victim through the messaging platform Telegram.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT uncovered the hacker's decision to return the stolen assets to the victim.

The attacker reached out in a chat on the Etherscan.io platform, requesting the victim's Telegram information to return 51 Ethereum (ETH).

At present, there has been no response from the victim to the hacker's offer. The reason behind the hacker's sudden willingness to return the stolen assets a week after the theft remains unclear.

Earlier this month, an unidentified user fell victim to a phishing scam and lost $68 million in cryptocurrency through spam transactions. The victim mistakenly sent scammers 1,155 WBTC valued at over $68 million.

The spam attack, known as a poisoning or dust attack, involves sending small amounts of cryptocurrency to a victim's wallet from addresses similar to the recipient's usual transactions.

Despite this significant theft, data from CertiK shows that losses incurred by crypto projects due to hacks have decreased by 141% in the past month. The total declared amount lost in crypto hacks was $21 million, with additional losses of $4.3 million from exit scams and $129,000 from flash loan fraud.

Since the start of 2024, crypto projects have suffered losses totaling $449 million, with the largest incident being the hacking of the Orbit Bridge, resulting in $81.5 million in losses.