Wasabi Protocol Hack: 4.55M$ DeFi Heist
ETH/USDT
$7,593,672,025.95
$2,295.00 / $2,243.71
Change: $51.29 (2.29%)
+0.0031%
Longs pay
Contents
The DeFi sector cannot escape the clutches of hack attacks; the Ethereum and Base-based perpetuals trading platform Wasabi Protocol suffered a $4.55 million heist on Thursday. Attackers seized the private key of the externally owned account (EOA) named wasabideployer.eth and immediately transferred the single ADMIN_ROLE permission in the protocol's permission system to themselves.
Technical Details of the Wasabi Attack
According to Blockaid's detection, the grantRole function was called using the UUPS standard, and the codes of the perp vaults and Long Pool were replaced with malicious versions. This is a classic exploit stemming from the upgradeable nature of the UUPS proxy: the implementation contract was changed with admin access, and funds were quickly drained. The targeted vaults are as follows:
- Ethereum: wWETH, sUSDC, wBITCOIN, wPEPE
- Base: sUSDC, wWETH, sBTC, sVIRTUAL, sAERO, sBRETT
Users were advised to immediately revoke their LP token approvals. This incident highlights the smart contract risks in the ETH ecosystem, as we emphasized on our ETH detailed analysis pages.
Similarities with Drift Protocol and Recent Developments
The attack mechanism was identical to the $285 million loss suffered by Solana-based Drift Protocol earlier this month. There, North Korea-linked attackers exploited an admin key without timelock or multisig in just 12 minutes. In Wasabi, a single deployer key held all control. Breaking news: $DRIFT has been delisted from Upbit and Bithumb exchanges, triggered by the loss of trust following this hack. Similar vulnerabilities should be monitored in ETH futures platforms.
DeFi Hack Wave: Kelp DAO and Others
Three weeks ago, Kelp DAO lost $292 million due to a single validator vulnerability in the LayerZero bridge. In April, CoW Swap, Grinex, Resolv Labs, and Volo Protocol were shaken by exploits. Resolv Labs' loss highlighted oracle manipulation in ETH-based restaking protocols.
2024 DeFi Losses and ETH Market Impact
2024 cumulative DeFi losses exceeded $770 million, with April taking a large share. ETH price is currently $2,284.27 (+1.82% 24h), RSI 51.24 (neutral), Supertrend bearish. Main support/resistance levels:
| Level | Price | Score | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | $2,243.45 | 88/100 ⭐ | -1.78% |
| S2 | $2,190.20 | 71/100 ⭐ | -4.11% |
| R1 | $2,286.94 | 69/100 ⭐ | +0.13% |
| R2 | $2,346.23 | 67/100 ⭐ | +2.72% |
EMA20: $2,285.88. These hacks are weighing on ETH's sideways trend.
Single Key Management Risks and Solutions
While UUPS flexibility offers developers error correction, admin abuse leads to fund theft. Single-key managements are evolving toward multisig and timelock. Coinbase International's listing of MegaETH (MEGA) futures could accelerate security-focused innovations in ETH L2s. If the sector doesn't learn from postmortems, trust erosion will increase.