KiloEx, a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual futures, was hit by a sophisticated attack earlier Tuesday that left users reeling with losses of around $7 million.

The exploit unfolded across multiple blockchain networks and appeared to stem from a vulnerability in the platform’s price oracle system, per blockchain analysis firm Cyvers.

An attacker, using a wallet funded through Tornado Cash — a tool that obscures transaction trails — executed a series of transactions on the Base, BNB Chain, and Taiko networks to take advantage of a flaw in the platform’s price oracle system, which allowed the attacker to manipulate asset prices.

KiloEx has since confirmed the breach, suspended platform operations, and is now working with partners to trace the stolen funds and blacklist the attacker’s wallet.

Oracles are blockchain-based tools that relay any type of outside data to a blockchain, where smart contracts use that data to make decisions for a financial application. That is, the oracle tells the platform whether ether (ETH) is worth $2,000 or $3,000, ensuring trades happen at fair market prices.

But oracles can be a weak link. In KiloEx’s case, the attacker exploited a price oracle access control vulnerability — essentially, a flaw that let them tamper with data by using flash loans (or temporary liquidity) that tricked the system into believing false prices.

The attacker manipulated the oracle to report an absurdly low price for ETH (say, $100) when opening a leveraged trading position. Leverage allows traders to borrow funds to amplify their bets, so a fake price can create massive distortions.

This made it look like they’d made a huge profit, which they then withdrew from KiloEx’s vault. The attacker repeated this across Base, BNB Chain, and Taiko, exploiting KiloEx’s cross-chain setup to maximize gains before the platform could react.

In one reported transaction, the attacker netted $3.12 million in a single move.

This isn’t the first time a DeFi platform has been hit by oracle manipulation. Similar attacks have targeted platforms like Mango Markets in 2022, where $100 million was stolen, and Cream Finance in 2021, with losses of $130 million.

Trading in financial markets feels like dodging a barrage of stones, each demanding constant vigilance and agility. Just as bitcoin (BTC) and traditional risk assets stabilize after last week’s Trump tariff-led panic, unsettling movements in Japanese bonds emerge, throwing a spanner into the mix.

The yield on the 30-year Japanese government bonds rose to 2.88% early Tuesday, the highest since 2004, registering a nearly 60 basis point increase in one week, according to data source charting platform TradingView.

The yield differential between the 30- and five-year bonds, representing the premium investors demand to hold ultra-long bonds over five-year bonds, has widened to a nearly two-decade high. The 10-year yield has bounced roughly 30 basis points to 1.37% in one week but stays well below the recent high of 1.59%.

These moves in the ultra-long bonds have raised the alarm in the investor community, and rightfully so, as Japan has long been an international creditor and the top holder of the U.S. Treasury notes. As of January, Japan held $1.079 trillion in Treasuries. Besides, for almost two decades, Japan has been an anchor for low bond yields, especially across the advanced world, supporting increased risk-taking in financial markets.

So, the ongoing increase in the ultra-long JGBs could incentivize Japanese funds to sell international bond holdings and yen-funded risk-on carry trades and move capital back home. The resulting volatility in the U.S. Treasury market and the strengthening yen could add to risk aversion.

«Japanese have the largest international investment position in the world [and] they have a lot of money in various different markets. If that money starts to get repatriated to Japan, that would clearly be a negative,» Garry Evans, Chief Strategist for Global Asset Allocation at BCA Research, said Monday in an interview with CNBC.

Bitcoin, too, could come under pressure as it did in August last year when the first round of the yen carry unwind supposedly happened.

BTC is an asset with several appeals, ranging from emerging technology to a haven to a store of value. The narrative strengthened last week as the escalating tariff war between the Trump administration and China led to broad-based risk aversion. BTC, however, fell less than the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

The relative resilience has been hailed as a sign of the cryptocurrency’s evolution as low beta play by some while a hedge by others, while effectively ignoring the fact that the cryptocurrency has been trending lower since early February, likely pricing a trade war that triggered sharp losses in the U.S. stock market last week.

So, stay alert!

Story Protocol’s IP tokens slumped 20% and retraced the entire move within hours late Monday in an unusual trading session.

IP fell from nearly $4 to $3.27 in a four-hour period, jumping back to over $4 in a couple of hours after hitting the daily low. The majority of the trading volume during this event was concentrated on major exchanges Binance and OKX Spot, with over $40 million in trading volumes before the plunge and $138 million after recovery.

The broader crypto market was relatively stable at the time, with bitcoin trading around $84,000 and no clear overarching trend impacting altcoins. This made the IP token’s sudden slump and recovery stand out as an isolated event.

Rumors circulated that large volumes of IP tokens, along with other tokens like MOVE and LAYER, were sold at discounted prices through OTC deals. This led to speculation about insider activity or coordinated selling among crypto circles on X.

As such, IP-tracked futures showed just $1.4 million in cumulative losses amid the price volatility, a very low figure considering the rapid move and trading volumes. This indicates all trading activity was dominated by actual spot sales and buying.

The move led to early fears of a Mantra (OM)-like selloff, which plunged 90% within hours late Sunday in a contentious move whose specific cause is still unclear as of Tuesday.

Story Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenizing intellectual property (IP), allowing creators to register, license, and monetize their work on-chain.