Venus Protocol detected suspicious trading activity in the Thena (THE) and CAKE liquidity pools, triggering immediate pauses on all THE borrows and withdrawals. The attack, identified as a two-phase supply cap exploit, involved an attacker using THE tokens as collateral to borrow 6.67 million CAKE, 1.58 million USDC, 2,801 BNB, and 20 BTC.
The total loss exceeds $3.7 million. Low-liquidity token withdrawals were also suspended out of caution. THE dropped over 17% to $0.2255.
The incident underscores growing risks in DeFi, even as overall hack losses declined in February due to shifting attacker tactics toward social engineering.