Two Major DEXs on Optimism and Base Suffer Front-End Attacks
Both Velodrome and Aerodrome have confirmed the incidents, with on-chain detective ZachXBT identifying the attacker's wallet address, initially linked to over $70,000 in losses.
Update on 02/12/2023:
By the morning of December 2nd, Velodrome and Aerodrome announced that their front-ends had been attacked again, advising users to avoid interacting with the platforms to prevent further financial losses.
It appears our provider has been exploited again.
— Velodrome (@VelodromeFi) December 2, 2023
Please do not interact with our front end.
It appears our provider has been exploited again.
— Aerodrome (@AerodromeFi) December 2, 2023
Please do not interact with our front end.
Original Article:
On the afternoon of November 29, 2023, Velodrome Finance (VELO), the leading AMM-DEX on OP Mainnet (formerly known as Optimism) in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL) and revenue, reported a front-end attack. The attacker managed to insert phishing links, potentially stealing users' funds.
Simultaneously, Aerodrome (AERO), a fork and closely associated platform with Velodrome on the Layer-2 Base network, reported a similar front-end attack.
Our frontend is currently compromised. Please do not interact with Velodrome for the time being. The team are investigating and will communicate more here when we have it.
— Velodrome (@VelodromeFi) November 29, 2023
On-chain detective ZachXBT quickly identified the wallets used by the attacker, estimating initial losses of over $70,000.
Our frontend is currently compromised. Please do not interact with Aerodrome for the time being. The team are investigating and will communicate more here when we have it.
— Aerodrome (@AerodromeFi) November 29, 2023
Currently, Velodrome and Aerodrome are investigating the cause and are advising users to avoid interacting with both platforms to prevent further potential security breaches.
As reported by Coin68, Aerodrome, a fork of Velodrome, launched on the Base Layer-2 network on August 28, 2023. Within days, Aerodrome significantly contributed to Base's growth, boosting its TVL by 60% in just one day.
Despite being a "newcomer," Base has made a strong impression in the crypto community during August-September 2023, with rapid user growth and record-breaking TVL and transaction statistics. However, the network has faced several security challenges, including rug pulls of memecoins like BALD, Frenstech (FRENS), Magnate Finance, rampant scam tokens, exploits on LeetSwap and RocketSwap, and a transaction processing halt for an hour in early September 2023.
The news of these attacks has also negatively impacted the price of Velodrome's token. VELO quickly reacted, dropping from $0.046 to $0.045.
This article details the recent security breaches affecting Velodrome and Aerodrome, including the platforms' responses and the impact on their token prices.
