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$116M in Crypto Assets Gone – Balancer Suffers One of DeFi’s Largest Exploits

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Over $116 million in crypto belongings have been drained from Balancer Protocol, marking one of essentially the most extreme decentralized finance (DeFi) exploits of 2025.

At roughly 9:12 AM on Monday, blockchain analytics agency Lookonchain first raised the alarm, reporting that Balancer had been exploited for $70.6 million in crypto belongings.

Initial knowledge revealed that the attacker siphoned off 6,587 WETH ($24.46 million), 6,851 osETH ($26.86 million), and 4,260 wstETH (~$19.27 million) throughout a number of blockchains.

Balancer $116M DeFi Exploit Unfolds

Within simply thirty minutes, Lookonchain up to date that the assault was nonetheless ongoing, with whole stolen funds exceeding $116 million.

The scale and precision of the exploit counsel a extremely coordinated and technically subtle operation spanning a number of DeFi ecosystems.

As of press time, on-chain data shows the hacker’s DeBank portfolio holding round $95 million, whereas roughly $21 million has been distributed to varied wallets, seemingly an early transfer towards obfuscating and liquidating the stolen belongings.

$116M in Crypto Assets Gone – Balancer Suffers One of DeFi’s Largest Exploits
Source: DeBank

The exploit has additionally triggered a ripple impact throughout Balancer-forked tasks, as many related protocols reported safety breaches or precautionary withdrawals.

Panic withdrawals started quickly after information of the assault broke, most notably from a whale wallet (0x0090) that had been dormant for 3 years however all of the sudden withdrew $6.5 million from Balancer swimming pools.

Major DeFi Protocols Respond

Major Ethereum-based protocols have been fast to reply.

Lido, a number one liquid staking platform, confirmed that sure Balancer V2 swimming pools have been impacted however clarified that Lido’s core protocol and person funds stay protected.

In an official assertion, Lido famous:

“Out of an abundance of warning, the Veda staff — curators of Lido GGV — has withdrawn its unaffected Balancer place.”

Meanwhile, Aave, one other high DeFi lending protocol, emphasised that it stays utterly unaffected.

Aave explained that its Aave/stETH stkBPT pool makes use of a customized model of Balancer V2 that operates independently of Balancer’s susceptible parts.

“The Aave protocol has no dependencies over Balancer V2 and is unaffected to the very best of our information,” the staff acknowledged.

Unclear Root Cause and Ongoing Investigation

Balancer builders have acknowledged the exploit however haven’t revealed the foundation trigger or the extent of the loss.

However, early indicators level to a fancy cross-chain exploit vector which will have focused the protocol’s distinctive liquidity structure.

Moreover, right this moment’s exploit will not be the primary time the Balancer protocol has confronted assaults and drains from its swimming pools.

In August 2023, the protocol suffered a $2 million drain related to a code vulnerability, after which the next month, over $900,000 was drained once more throughout its V2 pool.

Just just like the latest exploit, the susceptible belongings have been unfold throughout varied networks, together with Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Gnosis, Fantom, and zkEVM.

Growing DeFi Security Concerns

Another noticeable concern in regards to the latest crypto exploit is the way it’s now spreading throughout each main chain other than Ethereum.

On September 8, Nemo Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) yield platform working on the Sui blockchain, fell victim to a cyberattack that resulted in $2.4 million in losses simply forward of its scheduled upkeep window.

On the identical day, Swiss crypto platform SwissBorg lost $41.5 million price of Solana (SOL) tokens after hackers compromised associate API supplier Kiln.

Similarly, in May, Cryptonews reported that Cetus Protocol, a decentralized change constructed on the Sui blockchain, fell sufferer to an exploit that siphoned off greater than $200 million in crypto belongings.

PeckShield’s latest report reveals that crypto hacks precipitated $127.06 million in losses in September 2025 alone, noting the continued threat of large-scale assaults on decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain platforms.

In simply the primary half of 2025, crypto exploits reached $2.1 billion, almost matching all of 2024’s whole losses.

Why Crypto Hacks Keep Happening

When Cryptonews spoke with Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi, in August, he revealed that the majority crypto hacks occur for 3 main causes, that are:

  • Static audits: Enterprises depend on one-time checks, lacking post-launch flaws in evolving good contracts.
  • Ignoring incentives: They underestimate Web3’s open-ledger assault enchantment, needing bounties to outbid black hats.
  • No Web3 experience: Many groups lack prior blockchain information, lacking composability or oracle dangers.

The submit $116M in Crypto Assets Gone – Balancer Suffers One of DeFi’s Largest Exploits appeared first on Cryptonews.

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