Lending Protocol BonqDAO Loses $120 Million to Hackers

BonqDAO lost $120 million in assets due to the exploitation of its network.

The hacker stole $108 million worth of Bonq Euro and $11 million worth of WALBT.

The exploiter altered the update price function in BonqDAO’s smart contract to influence the WALBT price.

Bonq pledged to investigate and uncover the attacker’s identity.
AllianceBlock promised to mint new ALBT tokens and distribute them to affected users.

Crypto lending protocol BonqDAO suffered exploitation on its network, resulting in a loss of $120 million worth of assets. According to the blockchain security firm Peckshield, the hacker stole 98 million Bonq Euro (BEUR), which was worth around $108 million, and 113.8 million WALBT, equivalent to $11 million at that time.

The @BonqDAO is exploited and its price oracle is manipulated to increase the #WALBT price. Here is the example hack tx: https://t.co/YPxXMr2nkf pic.twitter.com/XrzExHY6m1
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) February 1, 2023

Peckshield noted that the exploiter changed the update price function in one of BonqDAO’s smart contracts, thus manipulating the wALBT token’s price.

The blockchain security firm maintained that the hacker had already transferred 113.8 million ALBT and 534,481 USDC from Polygon to Ethereum using Multichain. As reported, the hacker currently holds 89.2 million ALBT, 711 ETH, and 534k DAI.

Confirming the exploitation on its network, BonqDAO explained that the hacker gained unprecedented access to almost 110 million ALBT. According to the lender, this access allowed the hacker to increase the price of ALBT and mint large amounts of BEUR.

Bonq protocol was exposed to an oracle hack, where exploiter increased the ALBT price and minted large amounts of BEUR. The BEUR was then swapped for other tokens on Uniswap. Then, the price was decreased to almost zero, which triggered the liquidation of ALBT troves.
— BonqDAO (@BonqDAO) February 1, 2023

BonqDAO further explained that the hacker swapped the minted BEUR, drastically decreasing its value. As revealed by the lender, this act further accelerated the liquidation of ALBT funds.

Bonq assured its community that the breach had not impacted other accounts. Despite this, it has temporarily halted all operations on its platform.

Meanwhile, the lender vowed to investigate and unravel the architect of the attack. Bonq called on its users not to panic, reiterating its resolve to devise a workable solution to ensure that users withdraw all the remaining collateral without repaying BEUR.

AllianceBlock to Mint New Tokens for Affected Users

The ABLT token issuer, AllianceBlock, called on the community to remain calm, stressing that the BonqDAO hack is isolated to ABLT troves. According to AllianceBlock, none of its smart contracts suffered breaches in the attack.

But the ABLT issuer affirms its willingness to collaborate with the Bonq team to solve the crisis. The platform has also suspended all trading on its network. Furthermore, AllianceBlock promised to mint new ALBT tokens and distribute them to all affected users.

On the Flipside

The exploitation of BonqDAO assets triggered a 42% fall in BEUR’s price and a 56.51% drop in WALBT/WBNB’s price.

Why You Should Care

Crypto hackers have siphoned away $3.8 billion worth of assets in 2022. Hackers continue to exploit crypto platforms, as evidenced by the recent exploitation of BonqDAO.