A breach in Acala's system has led to the unauthorized issuance of 1.28 billion flawed aUSD tokens by a hacker who identified a flaw in the network.
A hacker exploited a vulnerability in the liquidity pool tied to Acala’s aUSD stablecoin, resulting in the minting of 1.28 billion coins with no collateral, which drastically affected the cryptocurrency's stability. dollar peg Taking immediate action, the developers behind the native cryptocurrency supporting DeFi initiatives implemented measures to protect the stablecoin, although this raised some eyebrows in the community. Polkadot At the peak of the crisis on Sunday, the value of aUSD crashed to an alarming $0.0099. Fortunately, the coin has almost bounced back, currently trading a little over $0.96 as of this writing.
An individual known as '0xTaylor_' was the first to alert the community about the attack, tweeting that the hacker leveraged a flaw in the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool.
According to reports from August 14, the hacker linked an Ethereum account to Acala, funding this address from illicit means. Be In Crypto It was recorded that several other users took advantage of the same bug to siphon off thousands of dollars in DOT from the liquidity pool. Acala quickly acknowledged the issue, stating, Binance .”
Independent detectives exposed We discovered a configuration error in the Honzon protocol impacting aUSD. An urgent vote is being initiated to pause activities on Acala while we look into the matter and implement fixes. Updates will be provided as we resume normal operation on the network. Twitter , quickly acknowledging the issue.
On social media, Acala sought outside help during this crisis. wallet In response to the emergency, Acala activated maintenance mode on their network and suspended operations involving the hacker’s wallet. Features like swaps and cross-chain communications were also paused until further notice. white hat , or ethical, hackers.
When Acala debuted aUSD back in February 2022, they highlighted the token's dependability. Cointelegraph .
The currency has kept relatively close to its dollar peg since its launch, but concerns arose when Twitter user Gr33nHatt3R.dot pointed out Acala’s choice to restrict accounts after the exploit. censorship resistance. Some community members raised questions about the autonomy involved, pondering whether Acala’s central oversight on account freezing truly aligns with decentralization principles. scrutinized Earlier today, Acala brought the matter to a governance vote, proposing a plan to rectify the erroneously minted coins, restore the aUSD peg, and recommence Acala operations. Community members are now voting on whether the 16 accounts traced with the 1.28 billion coins should return the funds to the pool.
The discourse within the community has remained relatively positive, with many members expressing gratitude for the team’s comprehensive handling of the situation. As one user, xiacachen, stated, “We will emerge from this even stronger, showcasing resilience to the world.” DeFi ?”
However, not all feedback was positive. User Sharpy expressed disappointment over Acala's failure to warn users against trading the wrongly minted aUSD. They also suggested that the capability to mint tokens without adequate collateral should be permanently revoked. proposal User bette7 responded, indicating that Kucoin has already halted deposits and withdrawals of aUSD, though stopping trading is beyond their control. Regarding the vulnerability, they remarked, “This was an unintended oversight that allowed misconfigurations to lead to exploitation. We will be adding extra fail-safes since perfection in code doesn’t exist, and errors will always be a possibility; thus, we’ve embedded the ability to pause specific on-chain operations.” uk The Acala breach occurred just two days after the founder, Bryan Chen, discussed security issues, focusing on a private key leak rather than protocol bugs regarding the Solana network. Conversely, Acala’s exploit stemmed from a flaw in its smart contract.
In an interview with Benzinga, Chen praised the benefits of open-source coding, allowing all parties including security experts and users to verify the application's security. uz Despite the turmoil caused by Acala's breach, Analog’s founder, Victor Young, pointed out that even audited smart contracts are not without flaws. Continuous oversight by developers and quality assurance specialists is essential to confirm the code meets its intended goals.
While the Acala incident was undoubtedly a setback, constant vigilance from multiple perspectives is critical. uz Chen emphasized the importance of scrutiny on any closed-source project claiming to be decentralized, explaining that true decentralization cannot coexist with such secrecy.
Curiously, Acala’s own commitment to decentralization is now under scrutiny, occurring rapidly after the Curve Financial incident on August 9—a situation from which Binance has nearly recouped all lost funds—with further destabilization caused to DAI following Tornado Cash sanctions on August 8.
It’s as if the cosmic scales are tipping, prompting urgent reflection on foundational issues in decentralized finance. Search Search Hack Seasons Bancor3 is redefining the ‘stake and chill’ concept, enhancing single-sided trading functionalities.
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Crypto investigator ZachXBT has uncovered French NFT thieves responsible for stealing over $2.5 million. Airdrops Calendar Remember, the information provided on this page serves informational purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as legal, financial, or investment advice. Only invest what you can afford to lose, and when uncertain, seek independent financial guidance. For further clarity, refer to the issuer or advertiser’s terms and conditions along with their help and support pages. MetaversePost pledges to maintain thorough and objective reporting; however, market conditions may shift without prior notice.
Vittoria Benzine, an art writer and personal essayist based in Brooklyn, covers contemporary art, focusing on human connections, counterculture, and the intriguing world of chaos magic. Her work appears in various publications such as Maxim, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Magazine, among others.
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