TL;DR
- An attacker drained 1,299 ETH from the DUSD/USDC pool by manipulating the price oracle.
- MEV bots intercepted the original transaction to execute offensive arbitrage operations.
- The team activated security mode and confirmed that underlying assets remain safe.
The year 2026 begins with a new security incident for the DeFi sector, as a flash loan exploit on Makina Finance was confirmed this January 20. According to reports from security firms such as PeckShield and CertiK, the protocol lost approximately 1,299 ETH, equivalent to about $4.13 million.
The attack directly targeted the Dialectic USD/USDC Stableswap pool within the Curve platform. The perpetrator initiated the operation by obtaining a 280 million USDC flash loan, using a substantial portion to manipulate the price oracle upon which the pool depends.
Subsequently, the attacker executed massive swaps that allowed them to extract a value close to $5 million. However, a Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot detected the maneuver and managed to front-run the transactions, capturing a large portion of the drained funds.
Technical Analysis and Security Team Response
The stolen funds are currently distributed across two Ethereum addresses, while authorities and on-chain analysts track the attacker’s steps. For its part, Makina Finance issued a statement clarifying that the issue is exclusively limited to DUSD liquidity positions on Curve.
Fortunately, the technical team assured that there are no signs that other assets or protocol deployments were compromised during the incident. As an immediate precautionary measure, security mode was activated across all its “machines” to prevent further damage.
This new security incident occurs just one week after the multi-million dollar Truebit Protocol hack, underlining the persistent risks in decentralized finance. Experts from SlowMist and CertiK warn that the use of outdated Solidity versions continues to represent a systemic threat to the entire crypto ecosystem.
In summary, liquidity providers in the affected pool have been instructed to withdraw their funds immediately to mitigate risks. Meanwhile, the development team continues to assess the damage and work on a comprehensive recovery plan for users affected by this attack.
