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Moonwell Loses Approximately $8.7 Million Due to Collateral Manipulation on Base

On August 27, Moonwell reported a security incident on its Core Market on the Base network, resulting in an estimated loss of $8.7 million due to collateral manipulation. The protocol responded by drastically limiting borrowing activity, and the incident has impacted token prices.

AS1 News

defisecuritymanipulationlayer2protocol
MAMO$0.2785+2660.31%

Moonwell announced a security breach in its Core Market on the Base blockchain, caused by an attacker manipulating collateral prices. The attacker used a low-liquidity asset, MAMO, as collateral, artificially inflating its value to obtain cbBTC. In response, Moonwell implemented measures to cap borrowing at 1 wei across all Core Markets, effectively halting new borrowing. Preliminary estimates from CertiK and PeckShield suggest the damage amounts to approximately $8.7 million. Following the incident, the price of WELL tokens dropped by around 13%, while MAMO declined by 9%. The protocol has not yet released a comprehensive report detailing the total bad debt or potential recovery strategies.

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The incident highlights vulnerabilities in collateral management within DeFi protocols on Layer 2 networks, emphasizing the need for enhanced security measures.