Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Replace (April 26 at 8:57 PM UTC): This text has been up to date to incorporate updates from Loopscale.

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale briefly halted its lending markets after struggling an roughly $5.8 million exploit.

On April 26, a hacker siphoned roughly 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “collection of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X submit.

Loopscale has since “re-enabled mortgage repayments, top-ups, and loop closing”, however “[a]ll different app features (together with Vault withdrawals) are nonetheless briefly restricted whereas we examine and guarantee mitigation of this exploit,” Loopscale said in an April 26 X submit.

The exploit solely impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses characterize round 12% of Loopscale’s whole worth locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.

“Our staff is totally mobilized to analyze, get better funds, and guarantee customers are protected,” Gooneratne stated.

Within the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain sensible contracts, blockchain safety agency PeckShield stated in an April report.

Greater than 90% of these losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency alternate, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.

Associated: Crypto hacks top $1.6B in Q1 2025 — PeckShield

Distinctive DeFi lending mannequin

Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to boost capital effectivity by immediately matching lenders and debtors.

It additionally helps specialised lending markets, comparable to “structured credit score, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale stated in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Loopscale’s order e-book mannequin distinguishes it from DeFi lending friends comparable to Aave that combination cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity swimming pools.

Loopscale’s primary USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It additionally helps lending markets for tokens comparable to JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping methods for upwards of 40 completely different token pairs.

The DeFi protocol has roughly $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of seven,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.

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