Curve Finance's Token Surges 500% on Bithumb After Major Exploit

CRV, the native token of stablecoin-focused decentralized exchange Curve Finance, which faced a security exploit late Sunday, is trading significantly higher on South Korea-based digital assets exchange Bithumb.

Curve, widely regarded as the backbone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, fell victim to a reentrancy attack that risked $100 million worth of digital assets. In a knee-jerk reaction, CRV's dollar-denominated price tanked over 15%, threatening liquidation of a significant borrowed position on Aave and raising the risk of market-wide contagion.

However, CRV's price denominated in Korean won (KRW,) rose sharply. At press time, Bithumb's CRV/KRW pair changed hands at KRW 5,565 ($4.36), up more than 500% for the day, according to charting platform TradingView.

CoinDesk reached out to Bithumb, seeking information on the increased price volatility.

Per Bithumb's local rival Upbit, some of Curve's stablecoin pools were affected by the reentrancy attack, which is responsible for the volatility in CRV. Upbit suspended withdrawals and deposits of CRV to ensure the safety of digital assets transactions. At press time, the CRV/BTC pair on Upbit traded 55% higher on the day.

While the exploit is bad optics for Curve, some prominent industry players remain confident of CRV's long-term prospects.

"In the coming RWA wave, $crv is one of the most important infrastructures. I have BTFD. NFA," Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitman and Matrixport, said in a tweet.

Tron's Justin Sun also extended support to Curve and the affected parties by the exploit.

(UPDATE, 31 July, 09:58 UTC): Corrects headline to remove $100 million exploit reference.