Bunni DEX Shuts Down Following $8.4M Exploit

Bunni DEX has shut down after an $8.4 million exploit, becoming the second major project after Kadena earlier this week. 

The project’s team cited a lack of funds, adding that they could not afford the costly audits required to relaunch the project. 

Bunni DEX Shuts Down After Exploit 

Decentralized exchange Bunni has announced it is shutting down operations after a major exploit. The platform is the second crypto project to shutter operations this week after Kadena declared bankruptcy. The Bunni team released a brief statement on X, confirming its closure due to a lack of funds. It added that it is struggling with the extensive financial and technical burden required to restart the project after losing its funds during the exploit. 

The September Exploit 

The Ethereum-based decentralized exchange suffered an exploit in September after one of its smart contracts was compromised. According to available blockchain data, the attackers targeted the platform’s stablecoin vaults, funneling over $2.3 million worth of crypto assets through various DeFi protocols. Blockchain investigators also discovered that the hackers moved the stolen assets by converting them into ETH and other stablecoins. 

While the Bunni team deactivated all active smart contracts once it detected the breach, the hackers were swapping the stolen funds through DeFi protocols in the hours that followed. The team added that users will still be able to withdraw their assets through the protocol’s website until further notice. It also stated that it plans to distribute treasury assets to holders of BUNNI, LIT, and veBUNNI tokens based on a blockchain snapshot. 

Bunni v2 Smart Contracts Relicensed 

The team has also said that the Bunni v2 smart contracts have been relicensed from Business Source License (BUSL) to the more permissive MIT license. According to the team, this will enable the DeFi community to reuse technologies like Liquidity-Directed Fees (LDFs), surge fees, and autonomous rebalancing mechanisms. 

The team also thanked its community and added that it will cooperate with law enforcement agencies to recover the stolen assets. 

Bunni’s decision to shut down drew a response from FailSafe, which offered to assist the platform to keep its operations going. 

The Kadena Shutdown 

Bunni’s shutdown came the same week in which blockchain infrastructure company Kadena revealed it was shutting operations due to bankruptcy. Kadena released a statement on Tuesday stating that it was no longer able to continue operations and immediately stopped all activities and maintenance on its blockchain platform. The company added that the shutdown was due to deteriorating market conditions. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.