Venus Protocol Hit by $3.7M Supply-Cap Attack

 

Decentralized crypto lending and borrowing platform Venus Protocol was recently targeted in a supply cap/flash-loan attack, resulting in an estimated $3.7 million loss.

 

The team said Sunday that it detected unusual activity in the Thena token (THE) pool. Withdrawals and deposits were temporarily paused while the team conducted an investigation. Additional details about the incident have since been released.

 

 

 

According to Allez Labs, the risk manager for the Venus Protocol, the attack occurred in two stages. In the first stage, the attacker gradually acquired 84% of Thena’s (THE) 14.5 million token supply, which represents the platform’s maximum supply. THE is the native cryptocurrency of the Thena decentralized finance platform.

 

The accumulation of the Thena token began as early as March 2025 and continued over a nine-month period, Allez Labs reported.

 

To bypass Thena’s 14.5 million token supply cap on Venus, the attacker moved to the second stage of the exploit, transferring tokens directly to the protocol’s contract and pushing the supply to 53.2 million tokens.

 

Timeline of the Thena Token Supply Cap Breach, according to Allez Labs:

• 11:00 UTC: 12,200,000 THE supplied (84% of the cap, within limits)

• 12:00 UTC: 49,500,000 THE supplied (341% of the cap)

• 12:42 UTC: 53,200,000 THE supplied (367% of the cap)

 

After accumulating a large amount of Thena tokens (THE), the attacker used 53.2 million of them as collateral to borrow other cryptocurrencies, including 6.67 million CAKE, 1.58 million USDC, 2,801 BNB, and 20 BTC. CAKE is the native token of the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange.

 

Although Thena initially had low on-chain liquidity, the attacker’s repeated use of it as collateral, along with additional purchases, caused its price to spike from around $0.27 to nearly $0.53, Allez Labs said. Out of caution, Venus Protocol paused withdrawals and borrowing of THE and CAKE tokens on its platform.

 

Analyzing the scale of the attack, Wu Blockchain reported that the attacker’s wallet obtained roughly 20 BTC, 1.5 million CAKE, and 200 BNB, totaling more than $3.7 million.

 

The Thena token (THE), which was primarily used in the flash loan attack, has seen its price decline by more than 17% over the past 24 hours. As of the time of publication, THE was trading at around $0.1949.