Shifty Negotiations: Are Projects Still Benefiting From Negotiating With Their Attackers?

This CertiK report analyzes negotiated fund returns following Web3 hacks and exploits (Oct 2020–Sep 2023), finding a rising number of negotiated settlements but declining per-incident losses and lower recovery rates in 2023; aggregated figures show roughly $1.53B stolen, ~$997M returned (65%), and ~$478M kept by attackers, and the report outlines recovery approaches (community-driven whitehats, proactive interceptions, negotiated bounties) and cites specific incidents and vulnerability examples while attributing trend shifts partly to bear-market liquidity constraints.