The hacker behind the 17 Ether domain names during the Ethereum Name Service’s (ENS) auction theft has reportedly made a decision to send the assets back. 

On October 4, OpenSea – A P2P marketplace for rare digital items and crypto collectibles – disclosed that all the ENS names involved in the theft has been returned to their rightful places, and that bidding on domain names will be resumed in the foreseeable future. 

At the start of September, the ENS bidding process has undergone a security breach, during which a hacker has attacked and illegally acquired 17 domain names, with a lower bid compared to the standard often placed by other clients. 

OpenSea, the host of the auction at that time, explained that a bug has sent ENS domains to the ones participated in the auction that was not having the highest bid. 

The stolen domain names, which specifically are apple.eth, defi.eth, wallet.eth, and pay.eth, have all been added to a blacklist, and a handsome reward has also been authorized to lure the attacker into giving back the domain names. 

“We appreciate the work you’ve done exposing vulnerabilities in the auction system. […] To compensate for the work you’ve done to expose these vulnerabilities, we’re prepared to offer you 25% of the winning bid price of each name you return. We’ll also refund your purchase price.”

The coffeshop.eth domain name has received a bid equivalent to 100 wrapped Ether (WETH), which can be converted to roughly $14,000 at press time.