In a surprising turn of events, the hacker responsible for the $321 million Wormhole bridge exploit was initially eligible for a recent airdrop of the newly launched W token, potentially claiming $50,000. The Wormhole team, however, seems to have rectified this oversight, as the wallet addresses associated with the exploit are no longer eligible for the airdrop.

The W token, which debuted at $1.66 on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) OpenBook, has a market capitalization of $3 billion and a fully diluted value of $16.5 billion. Despite initial congestion issues on OpenBook, the token's release reflects a positive stride in the DeFi sector.

The Wormhole bridge, connecting Ethereum and Solana blockchains, suffered a significant exploit in 2022. Since then, the company has bolstered its security measures, including the launch of two bug bounty programs and audits by third-party firms. The resilience shown by the Wormhole team in the face of adversity underscores the robustness and potential of the DeFi and BRC 20 sectors.