Nexera, a DeFi protocol, has been affected by a smart contract security breach that resulted in the theft of $1.5 million worth of NXRA tokens.
Following the incident, the value of the protocol’s native token plummeted by over 40%.
$1.5 Million Stolen and NXRA Token Plummets 43%
The exploit was first reported on August 7 by Cyvers, a blockchain security firm, via a post on X that stated, “Our system has detected a suspicious transaction involving your proxy contract.”
According to the post, an unidentified address managed to take control of Nexera’s proxy contract and subsequently upgraded it to gain access to administrative functions. Using the withdraw admin function, the attacker transferred all available NXRA tokens out of the contract.
Cyvers added that the stolen NXRA tokens are already being converted to Ethereum (ETH), and a portion of the funds have already been bridged to the Binance Smart Chain (BNB).
Hackers frequently exchange their stolen tokens for Ether to obscure the funds’ origin using cryptocurrency mixers like Tornado Cash, complicating cybersecurity firms’ tracing efforts.
The NXRA token felt the impact of the hack almost immediately. Data from CoinGecko shows that NXRA has dropped by 43.2% and is now trading at $0.0343. It also hit an all-time low of $0.01942 on August 7, 2024, though it has since rebounded by 76.5% from that low.
Nexera Hack Tied to Previous Attacks
According to on-chain data, this is not the first malicious activity attributed to the exploiter. On-chain sleuth ZachXBT linked the attacker to a series of previous private key compromises involving several other platforms, including SpaceCatch, Concentric Finance, OKX DEX, Serenity Shield, and Reach.
In response to the Nexera post, ZachXBT noted that teams continue to fall for the same types of scams nearly a year later.
This breach is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents in the DeFi space. Just a day earlier, the Ronin Network was exploited for $9.8 million worth of ETH, although the suspected white hat hacker returned all the funds within hours.
Furthermore, nearly three weeks ago, a hacker stole over $230 million from WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, marking the second-largest cryptocurrency hack of 2024.
