In another shocking turn of events in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space, Rodeo Finance – operating on the Arbitrum network – suffered a blow as it lost 472 ether amounting to nearly $888,000 in a crypto exploit, revealed by the PeckShield, a renowned name in blockchain security. The malicious actor managed to transfer the pilfered funds from Arbitrum to Ethereum, creating a rather intricate labyrinth as they exchanged these stolen tokens for a variety of diverse assets, before converting them back into ether.
Playing a well-executed, albeit ruthless game, the hacker employed Oracle manipulation techniques, a wicked stratagem designed to adjust price feeds to their advantage, making away with close to a million dollars in crypto. This taints several previously suffered DeFi attacks, one of which targeted the DeFi platform Arcadia on July 9. Arcadia was robbed of roughly half a million dollars from its Ethereum and Optimism vaults due to a significant code vulnerability.
The trail of the Rodeo Finance’s stolen tokens ends at Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer sanctioned for its utility in blurring transaction trails. Such is the audacity or perhaps desperation of these cybercriminals that despite such blatant daylight robbery, the hacker dared to exchange the stolen tokens into ether and subsequently, funneled the funds through Tornado Cash. This was the unfortunate turn of events that led to Rodeo Finance token facing a drastic dip with a nearly 65% drop within an hour.
Incidents like these are becoming far too common, the exploit was the third targeting the Arbitrum Network in the last four months alone. Earlier in April, Arbitrum-based Sentiment lost $1 million to a DeFi exploit. This was later succeeded by another breach on the Arbitrum network when Jimbos protocol lost a staggering $7.5 million.
Immunefi, a bug bounty platform, reported that DeFi platforms were unfortunately attacked resulting in a loss of an astounding $228 million across 79 separate hack incidents. On an equally disturbing note the Atomic Wallet hack last month and the exit scam by Fintoch platform were the unfortunate incidents leading to these numbers climbling.
Overall, the DeFi domain seems to be under the crosshair of ill-willed coders, amassing a worryingly increased risk and vulnerability. A majority 77% of the losses were on the BNB Chain and Ethereum, with the remaining 12% attributed to the Arbitrum network. The trusted blockchain and crypto community can hope for a future of increased security measures and awareness against such exploit strategies.
Source: Cryptonews
