Hedera-Based Bonzo Lend Loses $9 Million in Oracle Exploit

Bonzo Lend, a lending protocol on the Hedera mainnet, has paused operations following an oracle exploit on July 11, 2026, leading to an estimated lack of $9 million. Bonzo said that the incident stemmed from the verification layer of a third-party oracle, whereas Bonzo Lend’s core contracts functioned precisely as designed.

What Occurred

In response to Bonzo’s incident report, the exploit started round 00:51 UTC on July 11, 2026, when a pockets recognized as Pockets A submitted a worth replace to a third-party on-demand oracle system on the Hedera mainnet. The submitted worth involved the SAUCE/wHBAR pair and was closely manipulated in comparison with the precise market charge. Bonzo famous that this knowledge didn’t replicate regular market fluctuations, as the worth of SAUCE remained comparatively unchanged throughout the identical timeframe.

Simply seconds after the wrong worth was recorded on-chain, Pockets A used a tiny quantity of SAUCE as collateral to borrow property at a scale that vastly exceeded the precise worth of the collateral. In different phrases, the system seen the collateral as if it had been value considerably greater than its precise worth, thereby triggering the extreme borrowing.

How the Oracle Exploit Labored

The technical core of this incident lies inside Oracle’s signature verification layer. Bonzo said that whereas they make the most of each Supra and Chainlink on Hedera, most asset costs inside the ecosystem are offered by Supra utilizing a “push” mannequin. Merely put, Supra’s oracle committee indicators and pushes costs on-chain, whereas Bonzo Lend merely reads the saved knowledge to calculate the worth of collateral and loans.

Bonzo clarified that no legitimate oracle signatures had been cast, and the precise market worth of SAUCE didn’t fluctuate considerably sufficient to clarify the divergence seen on-chain. As an alternative, the contract verifier accepted an invalid submission as a result of a essential safety test was not correctly executed.

In response to the most recent report, the info submitted by Pockets A to the oracle contract included a committee ID, a committee hash, and a zeroed-out signature. A correct verifier ought to have blocked this on the very first step, even earlier than the pairing test. Nonetheless, on this case, the system handed the info into the BLS pairing test on the Hedera precompile. As a result of each the signature level and the referenced public key had been zeroed out, the pairing test returned true primarily based on the mathematical logic of the offered enter, leading to a validation that was incorrect in context.

Bonzo additionally emphasised that this was not a flash-loan assault, nor was it market manipulation within the standard sense, and it was not attributable to a bug in Bonzo Lend’s core contracts.

Losses and Protocol Affect

Bonzo estimates the first loss from Pockets A to be roughly $9.05 million, calculated primarily based on the principal withdrawn through the exploit transaction. This determine doesn’t embody accrued curiosity, transaction charges, subsequent worth fluctuations, or any probably recoverable property.

When factoring in Pockets B, the entire worth borrowed through the irregular window might attain roughly $10.06 million. Nonetheless, Bonzo separated this pockets from the entire loss, stating that its proprietor proactively contacted the workforce as a white-hat responder and dedicated to returning the property.

Bonzo’s disclosed loss breakdown. Supply: Bonzo Lend

Pockets A deposited 250 SAUCE and subsequently borrowed 6,634,528.202695 USDC and 34,518,389.36109841 wHBAR. This sequence demonstrates that the borrower withdrew property vastly exceeding the worth of the deposited collateral. The affect on the protocol was fast, with Bonzo Lend being paused at 01:41 UTC and Bonzo Factors being paused at 05:50 UTC.

How Bonzo and Hedera Responded

Bonzo paused Bonzo Lend instantly after the incident to mitigate additional threat, whereas additionally publishing a technical report detailing the timeline and related on-chain references. Within the report, the workforce made it clear that the problem originated on the oracle layer, not inside Bonzo Lend’s logic.

Hedera additionally voiced its assist for Bonzo, confirming that the mainnet continues to function usually. In response to Hedera’s message, the vulnerability lay in an upstream oracle layer, and the community’s core companies weren’t compromised. Bonzo famous that Supra acknowledged the incident and deployed a repair for the affected verifier contract on the Hedera mainnet.

Bonzo said that Pockets B proactively contacted the workforce as a white-hat responder and dedicated to returning the property, although the ultimate recovered quantity has not but been introduced.

What Comes Subsequent for Bonzo Lend

The pausing of Bonzo Lend leaves customers quickly unable to make use of the protocol usually, whereas liquidity suppliers should look forward to additional updates concerning withdrawal availability and the restoration course of. The workforce said they’re persevering with to work with the Bonzo Finance Basis and companions to deal with the restoration course of associated to Pockets B, in addition to to find out the mandatory circumstances to soundly reopen the protocol. At the moment, Bonzo is finalizing its complete assessment of the incident and the patches on the oracle verification layer earlier than releasing a brand new timeline for resumption.