$8.7 Million Exploit Rocks Moonwell as MAMO Price Manipulation Leaves Trail of Destruction

Moonwell, a DeFi lender on Base, has restricted borrowing after an attacker manipulated the price of MAMO collateral and extracted approximately $8.7 million in assets.

The attack did not involve a conventional smart-contract hack but rather exploited Moonwell's pricing infrastructure. Security firms CertiK and PeckShield estimated losses at roughly $8.7 million, while Blockaid initially identified 50.6 cbBTC worth over $4 million in the affected mCBTC market.

The attacker used MAMO to artificially inflate its market price, allowing more valuable assets to be borrowed against it. The stolen funds were later consolidated into DAI, according to PeckShield.

Moonwell responded by lowering borrow caps for all Core Markets on Base to 1 wei, effectively preventing new loans while the incident is investigated. Supply caps for both MAMO and WELL were also reduced to 1 wei.