Solana-Based Coin Drops 99% After $3.5M Flash Loan Exploit

A Solana-based coin drops 99% after a new flash loan exploits worth $3.5 million as we can see more today in our latest altcoin news today.

The Solana-based coin ANA dropped by 99% after it became the latest victim of a flash loan attack in the crypto space. The data from blockchain security company PeckShield revealed that the attacker managed to drain up to $3.5 million worth of funds from the protocol. It all started when the entity behind the exploit used a $10 million flash loan in USDC stablecoin to mint $10 million worth of ANA tokens from the Solana Main Pool Vault.

The flash loan attacks are a rapid pump and dump that uses the quick and collateral-free borrowing available from Defi platforms. The protocol oracle feed was manipulated to jack up the holding of the ANA tokens to surpass $10 million which was then swapped for $13.49 million in USDT. The hacker converted the full USDT amount into USDCet and transferred the funds into an ETH account via Wormhole.

The attack led to a drain of $3.49 million USDT from the Nirvana Finance Treasury. Nirvana will release a new statement regarding the exploit but so far, Solana only confirmed the incident in a tweet:

“We’re aware of a @nirvana_fi exploit that made use of Solend flash loans. We’re in contact with the team to help in any way we can. Funds on Solend are safe.”

A few other protocols suffered flash loan attacks as well and as reported, DeFi protocol Beanstalk Farms lost $180 million in a similar incident and it seemed that the hacker donated 250,000 USDC to the Ukraine Crypto donation wallet.

As recently reported, Web3 platforms and crypto companies were making inroads into the mainstream culture and celebrities like Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, and Elon Musk got in on all the action. Brands such as Ethereum NFT collection bored Ape Yacht Club branched out into IRL products like the BAYC-themed restaurant in Los Angeles. Solana announced plans to create its own smartphone even and it seems that the value is only rising as the platform mentioned a brick and mortar route. The Solana Spaces Twitter account added that the new space will be a cultural center and an embassy for Solana.