“Penpie protocol has been compromised,” reported crypto observers following an attack that resulted in an attacker withdrawing around $27 million from the DeFi protocol Penpie, built on the Pendle platform. Specifically, various types of staked Ether (ETH), sUSDE from Ethena, and wrapped USDC stablecoin were withdrawn.

Blockchain data shows that “the funds were transferred to a new address after being converted to ETH using the Li.fi platform,” noted Etherscan analysts. The initial funding source of 10 ETH was received through the crypto mixer Tornado Cash just a few hours before the attack.

However, Pendle assures that “investors’ funds on their platform are safe,” although all contracts have been temporarily suspended as a precaution.

Following the attack, Penpie’s token (PNP) dropped by 40% in a day, while Pendle’s token (PENDLE) also lost nearly 8% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) saw a modest decline of just 1%-3%.

Exploits and hacks continue to threaten DeFi protocols. “Digital asset users lost around $2 billion due to scams and hacks in 2023,” De.fi reported earlier.