Makina Finance Loses Nearly $5 Million in Stablecoin Pool Exploit
- The attack was carried out using an instant loan of $280 million.
- According to analysts, the attacker manipulated the pool’s price oracle.
- At the time of the incident, approximately $100 million was locked in the protocol.
On January 20, 2026, the decentralized Makina Finance protocol fell victim to an alleged hack of the stablecoin pool, resulting in the withdrawal of approximately $5 million. The incident was reported by CertiK, a company specializing in blockchain security.
According to the analysis, the attack was carried out using an instant loan of $280 million in USDC. The attacker used borrowed funds to manipulate the MachineShareOracle, which was responsible for pricing one of the protocol’s pools.
During the attack, the attacker used the DUSD/USDC pool on the Curve platform. According to CertiK, approximately $170 million in USDC was used to distort prices, after which the remaining funds allowed the attacker to withdraw approximately $5 million in pool assets.
Estimates of the damage vary. GoPlus Security estimated the losses at $5.1 million, while PeckShield indicated a sum of approximately $4.13 million. At the same time, CertiK noted that a significant portion of the funds — approximately $4.14 million — ultimately ended up under the control of the MEV developer associated with the transactions after the attack.
Makina Finance positions itself as a DeFi protocol with “institutional strategies” that was launched in February 2025. According to DefiLlama, approximately $100.5 million was locked in the protocol at the time of the incident.
The Makina Finance team has not officially confirmed the hack.
In a Discord post, project representatives stated that they were aware of “reports of a potential incident” and were continuing to investigate. The team later indicated that, according to preliminary data, the problem only affected the positions of DUSD liquidity providers on Curve and recommended that LPs withdraw their funds, without acknowledging any direct losses.
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