Share this article

Avalanche-Based Zabu Finance Sees $3.2M Hack

The attacker used Zabu’s “Transfer Tax” mechanism to mint tokens, sending their value to zero.

Updated May 11, 2023, 4:33 p.m. Published Sep 13, 2021, 12:32 p.m.
(Shutterstock)

Zabu Finance, an Avalanche-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has been exploited for $3.2 million.

  • The protocol tweeted Saturday that its Spore Pool was possibly under an exploit and confirmed the attack on Sunday.
  • The attacker used Zabu’s “Transfer Tax” mechanism to mint tokens, causing their value to slide to zero from about $0.0047.
  • Having removed 4.5 billion ZABU tokens, the attacker then dumped them on the Trader Joe’s and Avalanche Pangolin exchanges on the Avalanche network.
  • Zabu plans to take a snapshot of the situation immediately before the exploit to protect both users who invested before the hack and those who bought in afterwards.
  • The exploit totaling an estimated $3.2 million is probably the “first big exploit” on the Avalanche blockchain, according to DeFi analytics provider DeFiprime.

Read more: Can Avalanche Keep It Up? DeFi Users Rush In as Incentives Roll Out

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today. See all newsletters


More For You

Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Title Image

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.

What to know:

Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.

The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.

More For You

Peter Thiel and Galaxy-backed Citrea wants to turn idle bitcoin into a high-speed bank account

A photo of Citrea's four co-creators (Citrea)

Founders Fund and Galaxy-backed Citrea is aiming to unlock Bitcoin-denominated credit markets with a new mainnet and a Treasury-backed stablecoin designed for USD settlement.

What to know:

  • Citrea has debuted its mainnet, enabling Bitcoin-backed lending, trading and structured products directly tied to the Bitcoin network.
  • The platform introduced ctUSD, a Treasury-backed stablecoin issued by MoonPay and designed to align with forthcoming U.S. stablecoin rules.
  • Citrea says the rollout aims to mobilize idle BTC and provide an institutional-grade settlement layer for Bitcoin-based capital markets.