Radiant Capital to wind down after $50M Lazarus hack

The hack and its aftermath

North Korea's Lazarus Group exploited Radiant in October 2024, stealing $50 million. The damage was swift and severe. Radiant's total value locked fell to $75 million immediately after the hack and collapsed further to $5 million within the month.

The protocol had been thriving just months before. Radiant launched in 2022 and aimed to be a single platform to bring liquidity to several blockchains, and its total value locked reached a high of $386.8 million in December 2023. The October breach reversed that momentum entirely.

Maintenance mode and recovery efforts

Rather than shut down completely, Radiant is transitioning into what it calls a "maintenance state." Radiant says its frontend and smart contracts will remain accessible and users will still be able to withdraw, repay, and manage their positions.

Radiant's decentralized autonomous organization will no longer contribute to development, upgrades or expansions. That said, Radiant will continue recovery efforts stemming from the hack by keeping its remediation portal open and returning any recovered funds to affected users.

Token collapse

The wind-down announcement hit the market hard. The Radiant Capital (RDNT) token fell 4.2% after sharing that it was winding down. The decline extends a longer downtrend. The token hit an all-time high of 58 cents in September 2022, but is now trading for a fraction of a cent.

Radiant's failure underscores the severity of cross-chain DeFi risks. One breach. One month. And a protocol that once held nearly $400 million in liquidity was forced to surrender.