@PeckShieldAlert reported a flash loan to exploit cost Nirvana Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) yield system on Solana, for roughly $3.5 million.
#PeckShieldAlert Stablecoin $NIRV has dropped -92% to $0.09. $ANA haas dropped -85% to $1.28 @nirvana_fi @solana
Thanks @BlockBeatsChina for the intel pic.twitter.com/t7df7IwxCM— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) July 28, 2022
The hack caused significant price drops in Nirvana’s native token ANA and stablecoin NIRV. While the stablecoin dropped 90% of its value in US dollars, ANA fell 89 % from $8.97 to $0.93.
According to on-chain data, the attacker minted $10 million worth of ANA tokens using a $10 million USDC flash loan. As long as the loan is returned in the same block, flash loans allow you to borrow substantial amounts of capital at a minimal fee. The Solend Protocol was used to secure this flash loan.
The attacker then increased the price of ANA coins by manipulating the protocol’s oracle feed, causing their holdings to reach $10 million. The attacker then exchanged $13.49 million USDT for $10 million in ANA tokens.
The Nirvana Treasury lost $3.49 million as a result of this move. Since paying back the first $10 million loan, the exploited has converted the earnings to the DAI stablecoin and linked it to this Ethereum wallet address using Wormhole.
As of the time of publication, Nirvana has not yet made an official remark on the exploit. In a statement, Solend said that it was aware of the event and was in contact with the Nirvana team and that the exploit had no impact on its procedure.
Flash loan exploits frequently target DeFi technologies that are used on several networks. In April, Beanstalk, an Ethereum stablecoin project, suffered a loss of $182 million due to the biggest flash loan exploit ever seen in the cryptocurrency world.