The decentralized crypto protocol Echo suffered a massive hack, resulting in the theft of significant amounts of digital assets. Blockchain security experts quickly estimated the total damage from the exploit at approximately $76.7 million in eBTC tokens. The development team of the affected platform officially acknowledged the incident and immediately blocked all cross-chain transactions pending a comprehensive internal investigation.

Immediately after the theft, unknown individuals attempted to launder and redeem some of the stolen funds through third-party DeFi services. According to analytics from PeckShield, the hackers transferred 45 eBTC, worth approximately $3.45 million, to the Curvance lending protocol, using them as collateral to secure a loan of 11.3 wrapped Bitcoin. The acquired assets were quickly converted to the Ethereum network, exchanged for the native cryptocurrency ETH, and processed through the decentralized mixer Tornado Cash to conceal transaction history. However, according to the analytics platform DeBank, the bulk of the stolen capital—approximately 955 eBTC, equivalent to $73 million—still remains immobile at the hackers' addresses.

Representatives of the Curvance platform confirmed the detection of abnormal activity in the eBTC market, but emphasized that their own smart contracts are completely secure and were not compromised. Meanwhile, the expert community is actively discussing the causes of the vulnerability in the Echo protocol itself: Monad co-founder Kione Hong assured users of the stable operation of his network, while independent developers pointed out that the root of the problem lies not in the code, but in a simple leak of the administrator's private key. This scenario is clearly demonstrated by the fact that only a single signature was required to approve the gigantic transaction, and the system lacked basic security mechanisms such as withdrawal delays or strict limits on coin issuance.

This incident is the continuation of an extremely alarming trend indicating a sharp increase in cyberattacks on decentralized financial instruments. In the past month alone, at least twelve major blockchain projects have fallen victim to attackers, including well-known platforms such as THORChain, Transit Finance, and Ekubo. Prior to the Echo hack, the Verus Protocol Ethereum bridge also suffered a devastating blow, with cybercriminals managing to withdraw over $11.5 million, confirming the systemic security crisis in cross-chain infrastructure.