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Ethereum Lending Protocol XCarnival Hit With $3.8M Exploit, Recovers 50%

The DeFi protocol persuaded a hacker to return $1.9 million.

Some $3.8 million was siphoned from NFT lending platform XCarnival (Kevin Ku/Unsplash)
Some $3.8 million was siphoned from NFT lending platform XCarnival (Kevin Ku/Unsplash)

XCarnival, a platform based on the Ethereum blockchain that acts as a lending aggregator for NFTs (non-fungible tokens), has recovered 50% of the $3.8 million it lost in an exploit.

  • A hacker exploited a smart contract flaw that allowed a pledged asset to also be used as collateral, in this case a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
  • The vulnerability was exploited in multiple transactions over a short period of time at 12:03 UTC on Sunday, with the hacker siphoning 3,087 ethers (ETH).
  • "XCarnival was attacked on June 26, 2022 and suspended part of the protocol," the Singapore-based company wrote on Twitter.
  • "Currently our smart contract has been suspended, all deposit and borrowing actions are temporarily not supported, please stay tuned, we will confirm the situation as soon as possible," it said.
  • The XCarnival team offered the hacker a 1,500 ETH bounty, an offer that seemingly been accepted after a wallet tagged as "XCarnival Exploiter" sent 1,467 ETH to the affected wallet, according to Etherscan.
  • According to the protocol's website, total value locked stands at 2992.05 ETH for borrows and 3014.69 ETH for supply.

Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings.

Oliver Knight