Radiant Capital Announces Closure Following Inability to Recover from $50M October Hack
The decentralized autonomous organization behind Radiant Capital has announced it will cease active development and support of its lending platform following unsuccessful attempts to recover from a massive October 2024 security breach worth $50 million.
The decentralized lending platform Radiant Capital has announced plans to begin winding down operations after determining there was no "viable path forward" following a devastating $50 million exploit carried out by North Korean hackers in October 2024.
In a blog post published Monday, Radiant's decentralized autonomous organization explained that the decision to wind down came after exhausting all options to recover the stolen assets, attract new investment capital, and maintain sufficient operational runway for responsible continuation of the protocol.
The organization shared on X that despite dedicated efforts from contributors and community participants who worked to keep the protocol functional amid "increasingly difficult conditions," these efforts proved insufficient to sustain operations "without recovery, capital, or growth."
Since its 2022 inception, Radiant Capital positioned itself as a unified platform designed to aggregate liquidity across multiple blockchain networks. The protocol experienced significant growth throughout 2023, witnessing its total value locked surge to a peak of $386.8 million in December 2023, even as the broader cryptocurrency market experienced declining locked values.
The Lazarus Group, a hacking collective linked to North Korea, successfully compromised Radiant in October 2024, causing its TVL to plummet to $75 million before experiencing an even more dramatic decline to just $5 million by the end of the month following the security breach, from which the protocol ultimately could not recuperate.
Radiant not fully shutting down
Rather than implementing a complete shutdown, Radiant explained it will enter a "maintenance state," during which the protocol's user interface will remain operational, smart contracts will continue to be accessible, and users will retain the ability to withdraw funds, repay obligations, and manage their existing positions.
The decentralized autonomous organization will, however, discontinue all contributions toward development activities, protocol upgrades, or platform expansions.
"Users are encouraged to actively manage risk and reduce exposure."
According to Radiant, recovery initiatives related to the October hack will remain ongoing, with the remediation portal staying accessible and any successfully recovered assets being distributed back to impacted users.
Following the announcement of its wind-down plans, the Radiant Capital (RDNT) token experienced a 4.2% price decline. The token reached its all-time peak of 58 cents in September 2022, but currently trades at just a fraction of a single cent.