Cryptocurrency [loss] $2M+

Tweet by Balancer

2023-08-27 [vendor] Balancer [chain] ethereum
Primary Source ↗
Financial Loss $2.1M (2,100,000 USD)
Blockchain(s) Ethereum

Incident Details

After warning users several days prior that a critical vulnerability had been discovered in their protocol, the Balancer defi project has been drained of around more than $2.1 million in a series of exploits apparently taking advantage of the bug.Balancer acknowledged the hack, writing on Twitter that “Balancer is aware of an exploit related to the vulnerability [disclosed on August 22]. Mitigation procedures have drastically reduced risks, but [we] are unable to pause affected pools.” They reiterated that users needed to withdraw funds from affected liquidity pools to prevent further thefts.The blockchain researcher known on Twitter as MevRefund questioned why Balancer didn’t execute a whitehat attack on their own protocol to try to safeguard the vulnerable funds.

Total loss estimated at $2,100,000.

Technical Details

Initial Attack Vector
Smart contract exploit / hack
Vendor / Product
Balancer

Timeline

  1. 2023-08-27 Breach occurred
  2. 2023-08-27 Publicly disclosed