Venus Protocol Detects $3.7M Supply Cap Attack on THE Pool

TheNewsCryptoPublicado a 2026-03-16Actualizado a 2026-03-16

Resumen

Venus Protocol detected a suspicious trading activity in its THE token liquidity pool on March 15. The incident, identified as a supply cap attack, occurred in two phases. First, the attacker accumulated approximately 84% of the total Thena token market capitalization. Then, they used these holdings as collateral to borrow other assets, including 6.67 million CAKE tokens, 1.58 million USDC, 2,801 BNB, and 20 Bitcoin, resulting in over $3.7 million in losses. Only the CAKE and THE pools were directly affected. In response, Venus halted all THE borrows and withdrawals, as well as those for other low-liquidity tokens. This attack represents a notable protocol-level exploit in DeFi for 2024.

On March 15, Venus Protocol revealed that it has found some suspicious trading activity in its liquidity pool for the Thena (THE) token. For clarification, Venus operates as a lending and borrowing platform, and THE is the native token of the Thena DeFi platform.

Venus has appointed Allez Labs as its risk manager, which stated that the incident seems to be a supply cap attack and it unravelled in two phases. The first phase shows that the attacker gradually collected around 84% of the overall Thena token market capitalisation.

The second phase included the attacker using those holdings as collateral to borrow other assets from the platform. The borrowed assets comprised 6.67 million CAKE tokens, 1.58 million USDC, 2,801 BNB, and 20 Bitcoin, as reported by Allez Labs.

The overall value lost in the attack surpassed $3.7 million, revealed by Wu Blockchain. Only the CAKE and THE pools were directly impacted by the exploit.

The Notable Attack

Venus Protocol replied by halting all THE borrows and withdrawals quickly. The team mentioned in a statement that this will stay in effect until the investigation is taken to end. As an extra precaution, Allez Labs mentioned Venus also shut withdrawals and borrowing for various other low-liquidity tokens on the platform.

The attack is one of the more noteworthy decentralised finance security incidents of this year. The overall losses via crypto hacks slipped to $49 million in February, the lowest monthly figure in around a year, as per the blockchain security company PeckShield.

That slip in hack-associated losses was, although, accompanied by a surge in phishing and social-engineering attacks aiming at individual users.

Nominis, a blockchain intelligence platform, mentioned that a lot of individual attacks in February comprised phishing websites, malicious signature requests, and address poisoning scams made to steal private keys.

The Venus incident shows a different threat category, one aiming protocol-level mechanics instead of individual user credentials.

Highlighted Crypto News Today:

Playnance Partners With KGeN to Expand Web3 Gaming Distribution Network

Preguntas relacionadas

QWhat type of attack did Venus Protocol detect on its THE pool?

AVenus Protocol detected a supply cap attack on its THE pool.

QWhat was the total value of assets lost in the attack on Venus Protocol?

AThe total value lost in the attack surpassed $3.7 million.

QWhich two token pools were directly impacted by the exploit?

AOnly the CAKE and THE pools were directly impacted by the exploit.

QWhat immediate action did Venus Protocol take in response to the attack?

AVenus Protocol halted all THE borrows and withdrawals, and also shut withdrawals and borrowing for various other low-liquidity tokens on the platform.

QWhat was the first phase of the attack as described by risk manager Allez Labs?

AIn the first phase, the attacker gradually collected around 84% of the overall Thena token market capitalisation.

Lecturas Relacionadas

Key Lawmaker 'Relents', Wash's Biggest Obstacle to Assuming Fed Chair on May 15 Cleared

Key political opposition to Kevin Warsh's nomination as Federal Reserve Chair has been removed after Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) withdrew his objection, clearing the way for a committee vote on April 29. Tillis had previously blocked the nomination due to a criminal investigation into current Chair Jerome Powell, which he viewed as a threat to Fed independence. The Justice Department has since dropped the investigation. Warsh, who has broad Republican support, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in time for Powell’s term expiration on May 15. If confirmed, Warsh has signaled significant policy changes, including abolishing the "dot plot" of interest rate projections and reevaluating the Fed’s forward guidance framework. These changes could fundamentally alter the market’s pricing mechanisms for stocks, bonds, and currencies. Although the criminal case against Powell is closed, uncertainty remains as he retains his board seat until 2028. President Trump has not fully endorsed Powell, citing an ongoing review of Fed renovation spending. Warsh’s potential reforms target the communication tools developed post-2008, which have become foundational to global asset pricing.

marsbitHace 21 min(s)

Key Lawmaker 'Relents', Wash's Biggest Obstacle to Assuming Fed Chair on May 15 Cleared

marsbitHace 21 min(s)

Lowering Expectations for BTC's Next Bull Market

The author, Alex Xu, explains his decision to significantly reduce his Bitcoin holdings (from full to ~30% of his portfolio) during the current bull cycle, citing a lowered long-term outlook for BTC's price appreciation in the next cycle. He outlines six key reasons for this reduced expectation: 1. **Diminished Growth Drivers:** The narrative of exponential user adoption has largely played out with institutional ETF adoption. The next major growth phase—adoption by sovereign national reserves or central banks—seems unlikely in the near future. 2. **Personal Opportunity Cost:** More attractive investment opportunities have emerged in other assets, such as undervalued companies. 3. **Industry-Wide Contraction:** The broader crypto industry is struggling, with most Web3 business models (SocialFi, GameFi, DePIN) failing. This overall萧条 (depression) reduces the fundamental demand and consensus for Bitcoin. 4. **Strain on Major Buyer:** MicroStrategy, a major corporate buyer of BTC, faces rising financing expenses for its debt, which could slow its purchasing rate and create significant marginal pressure on the market. 5. **Increased Competition from Gold:** The emergence of "tokenized gold" has closed the functional gap (portability, divisibility) between physical gold and Bitcoin, offering a strong competitor in the non-sovereign store-of-value space. 6. **Security Budget Concerns:** The block reward halving continues to exacerbate the long-standing issue of funding Bitcoin's network security, with new fee source explorations like Ordinals and L2s largely failing. The author's decision to hold a significant (though reduced) position reflects a cautious, not bearish, outlook. He remains open to increasing his exposure if the fundamental reasons for his skepticism change or if new positive catalysts emerge.

marsbitHace 35 min(s)

Lowering Expectations for BTC's Next Bull Market

marsbitHace 35 min(s)

Prediction Markets Cannot Exist Without Insider Trading, But Insider Trading Is Killing Them

Prediction markets face a fundamental contradiction: they rely on insider trading to generate accurate prices, yet this same activity erodes public trust and threatens their survival. Recent scandals, such as a U.S. special forces member making $400,000 on Polymarket using classified information about a raid, highlight the severity of the issue. While platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi market themselves as venues where "everyone is an expert" and encourage informed trading, they also enforce policies against illegal insider trading. The core dilemma is that these markets depend on informed insiders for price efficiency but require uninformed retail participants to provide liquidity. If insider trading is too rampant, retail traders leave, perceiving the market as unfair. If restrictions are too strict, valuable information flow dries up, reducing the market’s predictive utility. The challenge is finding a balance that maintains both accuracy and perceived fairness—a task complicated by regulatory pressures and recurring scandals.

marsbitHace 41 min(s)

Prediction Markets Cannot Exist Without Insider Trading, But Insider Trading Is Killing Them

marsbitHace 41 min(s)

Can Iran 'Control' the Strait of Hormuz?

Iran has announced a comprehensive plan to assert control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil shipping chokepoint. The proposed measures include requiring all vessels to obtain Iranian permission for passage, imposing fees for security, environmental protection, and navigation management—preferably paid in Iranian rials—and absolutely banning Israeli ships. Vessels from countries deemed hostile by Iran’s top security bodies may also be barred. Analysts suggest Iran’s motives are multifaceted: increasing pressure on the U.S. and Israel by leveraging control over oil transit to influence global prices and inflation; creating a new revenue stream, potentially exceeding $7.7 billion annually, to counter Western sanctions and support postwar reconstruction; and using transit permissions as bargaining chips in future negotiations, notably with the U.S. However, the plan faces significant practical and diplomatic challenges. Enforcing comprehensive interception and fee collection in the busy waterway, patrolled by international military forces, would be difficult. The U.S. has already countering with a blockade of Iranian ports and threats to intercept any ship paying fees, potentially strangling Iran’s oil exports and fee revenue. Broad international opposition, led by European and Gulf states, and legal controversies further complicate implementation. The proposal may ultimately serve more as a negotiating tactic than a feasible policy, with its execution remaining highly uncertain.

marsbitHace 1 hora(s)

Can Iran 'Control' the Strait of Hormuz?

marsbitHace 1 hora(s)

Vertically Integrated Capital Aggregators: How Does Web3 Build an Impregnable Moat?

"Vertical Integration Capital Aggregators: How Web3 Builds Unbreachable Moats" explores how leading Web3 protocols create competitive advantages by vertically integrating multiple ecosystem components. Unlike Web2 aggregators that focus on user demand or supplier commoditization, successful Web3 entities like Hyperliquid aggregate capital, liquidity, users, and distribution into a unified financial ecosystem. This integration allows for efficient capital deployment—Hyperliquid generates $0.30 in fees per $1 of TVL annually, compared to Aave's $0.05—while creating a defensible moat that is difficult to replicate across six simultaneous fronts. However, this model comes with risks: DeFi loses $0.50 to hacks for every $1 earned, pushing protocols toward partial centralization and closed systems for security and scalability. The token serves as a shared incentive layer, aligning stakeholders and driving value through mechanisms like buybacks. The article concludes that vertical integration, not capital itself, is the true moat, and that the industry is evolving toward pragmatic, partially centralized models to ensure economic growth and sustainability.

marsbitHace 2 hora(s)

Vertically Integrated Capital Aggregators: How Does Web3 Build an Impregnable Moat?

marsbitHace 2 hora(s)

Trading

Spot

Futuros