- An attacker minted ~$76.7M in unauthorized eBTC on the Monad-based Echo Protocol, exploiting a compromised admin private key.
- The Hacker laundered $3.45 million via Curvance and sent funds to Tornado Cash, but still holds ~$73 million.
- This incident is part of a surge in 2026 DeFi exploits, including THORChain, Verus Protocol, Transit Finance, TrustedVolumes, and Ekubo.
- The root cause was deemed “operational, not technical,” with vulnerabilities like no supply cap or timelock.
- Monad co-founder confirmed its network is unaffected, while both protocols are investigating.
In a major security breach on Tuesday, the Bitcoin DeFi platform Echo Protocol was exploited for approximately $76.7 million after an attacker minted 1,000 unauthorized synthetic Bitcoin (eBTC) on the Monad blockchain. Security firms PeckShield and Lookonchain reported the incident, prompting the protocol to suspend all cross-chain transactions for an investigation.
The attacker attempted to launder a portion of the funds by depositing $3.45 million worth of eBTC into the lending protocol Curvance. Consequently, they borrowed $868,000 in wrapped Bitcoin, bridged it to Ethereum, swapped for ETH, and sent $822,000 to the mixing service Tornado Cash. However, according to DeBank, the hacker still retains 955 eBTC valued at roughly $73 million.
Blockchain developer “Marioo” reported that the exploit resulted from a compromised admin private key, calling it an operational failure. The vulnerabilities included a single admin signature with no timelock, minting cap, or rate limit. Meanwhile, Curvance confirmed its own contracts were secure but paused the affected market.
This breach adds to a severe wave of DeFi hacks in 2026, with at least a dozen protocols compromised this month alone. Notably, the Drift Protocol lost $285 million and Kelp DAO lost $292 million earlier this year. Other recent victims include THORChain, Verus Protocol’s Ethereum bridge, Transit Finance, TrustedVolumes, and Ekubo.
Monad co-founder Keone Hon clarified that the underlying blockchain network remains unaffected. Echo Protocol stated it will provide further updates through official channels as the investigation continues.
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