Radiant Capital’s DAO has voted to begin a gradual wind-down after it failed to recover from its October 2024 hack. In a new community update, the team said that after 18 months of efforts, it could not restore growth, secure new funding, or recover most stolen funds.
According to coverage of the announcement, Radiant stated that “the DAO has no viable path forward” following the exploit. Therefore, the protocol will enter what it calls “maintenance mode” rather than an immediate shutdown.
The front end and core smart contracts will remain online so users can manage existing positions. Radiant said people will still be able to withdraw deposits, repay loans, and adjust open positions while the DAO winds down.
Lending Markets Freeze As Incentives End
As part of the plan, Radiant will gradually turn off new lending activity. The DAO said borrowing caps across all markets will be reduced to zero, meaning users will not be able to open new loans, even though they can close old ones.
At the same time, Radiant will stop issuing RDNT token incentives to lenders and borrowers. The team explained that treasury funds will be reserved for essential operations like infrastructure and security, rather than for growth campaigns.
Radiant also confirmed that it will halt new feature development, integrations, and chain expansions. Instead, the protocol’s remaining resources will focus on keeping the existing system stable long enough for users to exit safely.
October 2024 Exploit Drained Over $50M
Radiant’s decision comes after a major exploit in October 2024 that drained more than 50 million dollars in crypto. According to the project’s post-mortem and reports from the security firm, attackers compromised a multisig setup and smart contracts across Arbitrum and BNB Chain, then siphoned assets from lending pools.
Blockchain security firms estimated total losses between $50 million and $58 million, with stolen tokens including USDT, USDC, wETH, and wBNB. Radiant initially paused markets and later rolled out upgrades, but it said user activity and liquidity never returned to earlier levels.
In its latest statement, Radiant noted that recovery talks with potential backers and partners did not lead to new capital. As a result, the DAO concluded that continuing to operate as a full DeFi lending platform would not be sustainable.
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