The leading decentralized exchange, KyberSwap, has suffered a hack of almost $50 million. And the project’s administrators have urged users to withdraw their funds as a safety measure.
On November 23rd, Kyber Network alerted its users to the hack, stating that “KyberSwap Elastic has experienced a security incident.” Let’s explore more about this important news.
What Happened with KyberSwap?
KyberSwap clarified that its aggregator was not affected by the hack. Interestingly, on-chain security firms claim that the hack swept around $20 million in wrapped ether (wETH), $7 million in wrapped Lido-staked ether (wstETH), and $4 million in arbitrum (ARB).
Furthermore, the stolen funds were split among several networks, including Base, Optimism, Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum.
🚨Urgent🚨
Dear KyberSwap Elastic Users,
We regret to inform you that KyberSwap Elastic has experienced a security incident.As a precautionary measure, we strongly advise all users to promptly withdraw their funds. Our team is diligently investigating the situation, and we…
— Kyber Network (@KyberNetwork) November 22, 2023
According to DefiLlama, KyberSwap experienced a 68% decline in its total value locked (TVL) within a few hours. With about $78 million leaving the protocol as a result of customer withdrawals and the attack. Its TVL has decreased from its 2023 peak of $134 million to $27 million at this time.
Furthermore, news of the hack affected the price of the Kyber Network Crystal KNC token. The token dropped by 7% but has since rebounded to trade at $0.72.
.@KyberSwap was exploited due to tick manipulation and double liquidity counting.
In summary, the attackers borrowed a flash loan and drained the pools with low liquidity. By executing swaps and altering positions, they manipulated the current prices and ticks of the victimized… https://t.co/wNGORP4CsT pic.twitter.com/lIQYe5SHi7— BlockSec (@BlockSecTeam) November 23, 2023
Conclusion
KyberSwap is one of the many crypto platforms that have suffered from a hack this year. Crypto hacks have surged in number in 2023, with DeFi platforms being a prime target for hackers.
So, private key compromise is said to be one of the most common causes of crypto hacks. Certik noted that exit scams and Oracle compromises were other popular exploits. We have an article showing you how to protect your assets from hacks.