DeFi Platform Hacked for $9 Million
On Feb. 16, CertiK, a blockchain security firm, posted a series of tweets reporting that Platypus Finance, a DeFi application, had been hit with a $9 million attack.
The attacker used flash loans on the AVAX blockchain to exploit a function in one of Platypus’ smart contracts. By depositing $44 million in stablecoins into the application, the attacker was able to mint around 41.79 million USP, which is Platypus’ stablecoin.
Then, the attacker took advantage of an emergency withdrawal function to access the original deposit and the minted USP, eventually swapping the USP for other assets and repaying the loan. The attack left Platypus with a loss of $9 million.
While most of the stolen funds are still in the attacker’s contract address, some have been sent to certain pools, and some of that amount may be recoverable. This is not the first time that flash loans have been used to target DeFi platforms.
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Other examples include attacks on Mango Markets, New Free DAO, Nirvana Finance, and Deus DAO. Platypus confirmed the attack in a message on Telegram and Discord, saying it would pause operations while it assesses the situation.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
