The post zkLend announced it is winding down after suffering a serious exploit appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Decentralized lending protocol zkLend has announced that it will wind down operations and devote its remaining treasury to a user recovery fund after a disastrous $9.5 million exploit in February and subsequent loss of token liquidity.  The decision, shared in a post on X by the zkLend team, marks the end of the Starknet-based protocol’s brief run in DeFi. Dear zkLend Community, It is with a heavy heart that we announce our decision to wind down zkLend. This decision was not made lightly. Over recent months, the exploit we suffered has deeply eroded user confidence, and furthermore, the recent removal of ZEND from major exchanges… — zkLend (@zkLend) June 25, 2025 Liquidity dries up and official wind-down The exploit and ensuing drama seriously impacted confidence in zkLend’s ZEND token. Major exchanges Bybit and KuCoin delisted ZEND in recent weeks, slashing trading volume and making it nearly impossible for users to exit positions without steep slippage. With token liquidity vanishing, zkLend’s developers concluded there was no viable path forward for relaunching their money markets. In an X announcement, zkLend’s core contributors outlined their decision: “Given these circumstances, we believe that using the remainder of our treasury—$200,000—towards supporting affected users through the recovery fund is a more responsible and meaningful use of resources than relaunching our money markets and continuing development.” The protocol also stated that users can unstake funds or file claims via the DeFi Spring and kSTRK portals. Also, the team has retained the services of zeroShadow, the blockchain forensics firm working on tracking down the stolen assets, and stated that any recovery from this effort will be restituted to the recovery fund. According to zkLend, in the coming weeks, its audited and refreshed codebase will be released as open source for community developers to fork or build upon. zkLend…

---

Filed under: News - @ June 25, 2025 7:29 pm