Prisma Finance Suffers $10 Million Breach; Investigation Underway

The Prisma Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol experienced a breach on March 28, resulting in the loss of approximately $10 million worth of cryptocurrencies.

The first signs of the anomaly were detected by on-chain security alert provider Cyvers, who noticed suspicious transactions involving Prisma Finance, with losses totaling around $9 million. The attacker appeared to have received support from @FixedFloat. Subsequently, Cyvers identified an additional $1 million in fraudulent transactions, bringing the total amount exploited to nearly $10 million.

In response to the breach, Prisma Finance swiftly took action, with its core engineers and contributors pausing the protocol to conduct a thorough investigation.

Prisma Finance is a decentralized liquid staking token protocol boasting a total value locked (TVL) of over $222 million, according to DefiLlama.

The attacker wasted no time in converting the stolen funds into Ether, as reported by Cyvers. The situation remains fluid, with on-chain security firm PeckShield updating that the losses have now risen to approximately 3,257.7 ETH, equivalent to around $11.6 million.

Moreover, PeckShield’s findings indicate that additional scammers are attempting to capitalize on the situation. A fraudulent Prisma Finance account, adorned with a golden badge, has been observed under the official announcement, misleading users with a suspicious link. It’s crucial for users to remain vigilant and only rely on information from verified sources.

The breach adds to the ongoing challenges facing the cryptocurrency industry, with over $200 million already lost to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 across 32 separate incidents as of February 29, according to blockchain security firm Immunefi. This represents a notable increase from the $173 million lost during the same period in 2023.

Immunefi’s December 28 report further highlights the significant losses incurred due to crypto-related security breaches, with a total of $1.8 billion lost in 2023, a portion of which has been attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group.