DeFi Protocol Nexera Faces $1.5 Million Hack, Smart Contract Exploited

Key Takeaways

•  The attack led to the loss of 47 million NXRA tokens, valued at around $1.76 million
• ZachXBT has linked the Nexera hacker to previous exploits, including breaches at SpaceCatch, Concentric Finance, OKX DEX, among others

Nexera, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, recently suffered a $1.5 million hack involving its native Nexera (NXRA) tokens. The breach, detected on August 7 by blockchain security firm Cyvers, saw a hacker exploiting a vulnerability in Nexera’s proxy contract.

Cyvers reported that the hacker took control of the proxy contract, upgraded it, and used the “withdraw admin” function to transfer all NXRA tokens to their address. This attack led to the loss of 47 million NXRA tokens, valued at around $1.76 million. The hacker has already exchanged 14.7 million NXRA tokens for about $450,000 in USDT and is converting the rest into Ether (ETH) and moving funds to the Binance Smart Chain (BNB).

This incident came just a day after the Ronin Network was exploited for $9.8 million worth of Ether (ETH) by a suspected white hat hacker, who returned the funds within hours. In contrast, the Nexera hacker remains at large with the stolen assets.

Adding to the complexity, on-chain investigator ZachXBT linked the Nexera hacker to previous exploits, including breaches at SpaceCatch, Concentric Finance, OKX DEX, Serenity Shield, and Reach.

In response, Nexera paused its token contract and advised investors to stop trading NXRA tokens to prevent further losses. In a statement, Nexera said they have identified the exploit and are taking steps to prevent further damage. The firm stated that among the total $NXRA tokens that were transferred, only $440k was effectively compromised.

“The exploit was part of a wider coordinated attack targeting multiple projects and protocols”, Nexera’s statement on X reads.

The latest development comes amid crypto exploits becoming increasingly common in the Web3 space. As per a PeckShield report, in July alone 16 crypto hacks resulted in approximately $266 million in losses. Last month, India-based crypto exchange WazirX suffered a staggering $230 million hack – worth nearly 45% of customer funds.