The decentralized lending protocol zkLend has fallen victim to a major attack on the Starknet network, resulting in a loss of $9.5 million. In an attempt to resolve the situation quickly, the platform is offering a significant bounty to the hacker in exchange for the return of funds within 48 hours.
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zkLend compromised on Starknet, loss of $9.5 million
February 12, 2025, the protocol zkLend has undergone a sophisticated network attack, resulting in the theft of $9.5 million. Cyvers, a company specializing in blockchain security, quickly identified and analyzed the attack.
According to their investigations, the attacker first transferred the stolen funds to the network Ethereum protocol, before attempting to launder money via the Railgun. However, the security mechanisms of Railgun automatically sent the funds back to the original address, thus thwarting the hacker’s initial strategy.
Faced with this situation, zkLend has adopted a pragmatic approach by proposing a compromise to the hacker. The protocol offered a bounty of 10% of the stolen funds (about 330 ETH) in exchange for the return of the remaining 3,300 ETH by midnight UTC on February 14. However, having not been contacted, the platform said it had launched legal proceedings.
A worrying context for crypto security
This attack is part of a series of security incidents affecting the crypto ecosystem, as illustrated by the recent phishing campaign targeting users of the Phantom. Although January 2025 marked a 44% decrease in hacks compared to the previous year, the sector nevertheless recorded considerable losses of $73 million in this month alone.
Faced with persistent vulnerabilities in decentralized finance, industry experts are stepping up their security efforts. Michael Pearl from Cyversis is developing a promising off-chain transaction validation solution, which, he claims, can prevent up to 99% of piracy and scams in the crypto ecosystem.
While we await the deployment of these innovations, it remains important to adopt reinforced security practices and give preference to platforms with robust protection mechanisms.
As a journalist at Coinpri, I’ve been captivated by the world of bitcoin and blockchain since 2020. The decentralized aspect of Bitcoin particularly piqued my interest. Since then, I’ve been working constantly to spread my knowledge, hoping one day to see a world where everyone fully enjoys their financial freedom.
