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DeFi Protocol Meerkat Undergoes Exploit Losing $31 Million

DeFi Protocol Meerkat Undergoes Exploit Losing $31 Million

Today, approximately at 9 AM UTC, Meerkat, a DeFi protocol, suffered an exploit on BSC platform. The BNB-BUSD yield farming “Vault 1” of the DeFi application Meerkat finance, a clone of Yearn Finance, was tapped for $31 million this morning. The team initially advocated that they had been the prey of an exploit. However, they have since deleted all social channels due to the exploit’s nature. Moreover, some consider the team liquidated and appropriated user funds — a scam type, colloquially regarded as a rug pull. 

As per reports, the Meerkat Finance team made a long note about the exploit in Telegram. Their website, Twitter accounts, and Telegram group are disabled. Distressed users have communicated to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, hoping that the CEO can hunt down the money. Moreover, CZ has not responded to any comment on Twitter.

Hackers transferred BUSD and BNB in small transactions

Diving into the nuances of the hack, the hackers implemented a shift in the smart contract address’s ownership on Meerkat Finance at 9 AM UTC. They commenced withdrawing from the smart contract to various addresses. The blockchain identified the hacker’s primary BNB address tagged as “FakePhishing17” on BSC scan. They earned 73,635.23 BNB worth $17.67 million. The hackers sent the remaining $13.9 million in BUSD to other addresses in smaller amounts. 

Further, the FakePhishing17 address has also transferred the BNB to other wallets in seven transactions of 5,000 BNB each, one trade worth 10,000 BNB, one trade above 23,000 BNB, and other small transactions. Various users of the platform have reached out on the Binance community page, mourning their losses. Nevertheless, the hacker addresses’ movement shows that they conduct the transactions utilizing DeFi avenues such as PancakeSwap rather than a centralized exchange.

Indeed, the Meerkat hack exploit accompanies a litany of exploits that bothered the DeFi space in the initial two months of this year. In February, Cream Finance (CREAM) and Alpha Finance Labs (ALPHA) underwent an exploit. It detected a wicked party using an idle liquidity pool designed for a future upgrade of HomoraBank. Notwithstanding the hacks, approximately all successful DeFi projects, including Aave (AAVE) YFI – have come back more determined from similar events.

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