Bo Shen, co-founder of venture capital firm Fenbushi Capital, has announced a bounty of 10% to 20% of any recovered amount for individuals or organizations that make a substantial contribution to retrieving approximately $42 million in digital assets taken from his personal wallet. Shen made the announcement on Thursday, reviving a case he first disclosed in November 2022. He stated that his team would distribute rewards once the recovery process is complete.
Shen said onchain investigators ZachXBT and Taylor “Tayvano” Monahan had already helped freeze around $1.2 million in assets connected to the theft. The renewed effort follows the development of new leads and a clearer understanding of how the stolen funds moved after the incident. Shen acknowledged, however, that any full recovery remains uncertain even with the fresh information available.
When Shen originally disclosed the hack in late 2022, he clarified that the stolen funds were personal and had no impact on Fenbushi-related entities. Blockchain analytics firm SlowMist later determined that the theft resulted from a compromise of Shen’s mnemonic seed phrase. SlowMist identified the stolen assets as approximately $38.2 million in USDC, 1,607 Ether, nearly 720,000 USDt, and 4.13 Bitcoin.
According to SlowMist, the stolen assets were subsequently moved through cryptocurrency exchanges including ChangeNow and SideShift. Shen noted that onchain tracking and security investigation tools were far less advanced at the time of the hack, which significantly limited investigators’ ability to trace funds across different chains and platforms. Those constraints contributed to the case going unresolved for several years.
Shen pointed to recent advances in artificial intelligence-driven data analysis and onchain forensics as key factors enabling investigators to better follow asset flows and identify relevant transaction patterns. He said these technological improvements have opened new possibilities for pursuing long-running cases that previously appeared intractable. The progress in investigative tools forms the basis for the renewed push to recover the funds.
Beyond the immediate goal of recovering his assets, Shen suggested the effort could serve as a broader test case for how modern tools and coordination methods can support extended crypto investigations. He said the case illustrates how technological progress may expand what is achievable in tracing and responding to crypto-related incidents. Despite the optimism surrounding new capabilities, Shen emphasized that a successful recovery is not guaranteed.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
