On October 17, Radiant Capital, a prominent lending platform on the Arbitrum network, experienced a major hack, resulting in the theft of approximately $51 million worth of assets. The attackers managed to gain control of 3 out of 11 private keys required for approving multi-signature (multisig) transactions, enabling them to take over critical smart contracts within the protocol.
According to Tony Ke, head of security research at Fuzzland, the hackers are now in control of about $32 million in assets on the Arbitrum network and $18 million on the BNB Chain. The stolen assets include wrapped Ethereum (wstETH) and Ethereum (weETH).
In response to the breach, Radiant Capital has temporarily suspended lending on its Ethereum and Base networks. The company is actively collaborating with several security firms, including Chainalysis, Hypernative, Zero Shadow, and SEAL 911, to address the situation.
We are aware of an issue with the Radiant Lending markets on Binance Chain and Arbitrum. We are working with SEAL911, Hypernative, ZeroShadow & Chainalysis and will provide an update as soon as possible. Markets on Base and Mainnet are paused until further notice.
— Radiant Capital (@RDNTCapital) October 16, 2024
This is the second hack targeting Radiant Capital in 2024. In January, the platform lost 1,900 ETH (worth $4.5 million at the time) in a flash loan attack.
The hack also triggered a sharp decline in the price of Radiant Capital’s RDNT token, which fell nearly 10%, from $0.72 to $0.66.
While the exact cause of the attack is still under investigation, some experts speculate it could have originated from a compromised user interface, leading private key holders to unknowingly interact with malware-infected protocols.
The hack has once again raised concerns about the security of decentralized lending platforms as hackers become more sophisticated. A recent report by cybersecurity firm Hacken revealed that protocol access control breaches accounted for 70% of stolen funds in Q3 2024, amounting to $316 million in losses.
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