Echo Protocol Loses 76.7 Million Dollars After Attacker Mints 1,000 Unauthorized Synthetic Bitcoin

[madmax]

Decentralized finance protocol Echo Protocol was exploited on Tuesday after an attacker minted approximately 1,000 unauthorized eBTC tokens on the protocol, which is deployed on the Monad blockchain. Blockchain security firm PeckShield and analytics platform Lookonchain both reported the incident, noting the minted eBTC was worth around $76.7 million at the time of the attack. Echo Protocol confirmed it was investigating a security incident impacting its bridge on Monad and suspended all cross-chain transactions while the investigation is underway. The attacker still holds approximately 955 eBTC worth around $73 million, having only moved a small portion of the stolen funds so far.

Echo Protocol is a Bitcoin DeFi platform focused on liquidity aggregation, liquid staking, restaking, and yield generation on the Monad blockchain, creating unified liquid BTC assets like eBTC for users to deploy across DeFi protocols for additional yield. Monad co-founder Keone Hon clarified that the Monad network itself was not affected and is operating normally, while Curvance, a DeFi lending protocol briefly used by the attacker in the laundering process, confirmed its own smart contracts were not compromised and paused the affected market for investigation. Echo Protocol said it will continue providing updates through its official channels as more information becomes available.

[mendez]

13 hacks in May, month not finished, more likely coming