DeFi Drama! 😱 YFI Price Goes WILD!

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Good heavens! A most unfortunate kerfuffle has erupted over at Yearn Finance, you know, that rather complicated business with the tokens and the vaults. It appears someone has been having a bit of fun minting an unlimited supply of yETH, rather like printing money (though, naturally, a great deal less legal).

The villainous chap (or chapess, one mustn’t assume) then helped themselves to liquidity from a few Balancer pools. Honestly, the brazenness of it all! It rather smacks of a particularly audacious picnic, doesn’t it? And wouldn’t you know it, a goodly sum – 100 ETH here, 100 ETH there – then mysteriously vanished through the rather shadowy portal known as Tornado Cash. 🙄

Infinite-Mint Attack Drains Liquidity From Balancer Pools

According to the sort of people who stare intently at blockchains (a curious occupation, if you ask me), this all kicked off around 9:11 pm on the 30th of November. Apparently, a mischievous wallet conjured up a staggering 235 trillion yETH in a single transaction. Good grief! One rather wonders where one would put all that yETH.

some other balancer related stuff looking like an exploit considering heavy interactions with tornado

yearn, rocket pool, origin, dinero and other LST going around

– Togbe (@Togbe0x) November 30, 2025

Nansen’s alert system (a rather fancy bit of kit, I’m told) confirmed the whole mess, pointing the finger at a vulnerability in the yETH token contract, not the more respectable Vault infrastructure of Yearn. A close shave, what!

Naturally, this newly minted yETH was then used to relieve the Balancer liquidity pools of approximately $2.8 million worth of assets – mostly ETH and these Liquid Staking Tokens, which sound suspiciously like something dreamed up by a particularly enthusiastic accountant. 🤨

And, just to add a touch of theatricality, around 1,000 ETH was rapidly whisked away through Tornado Cash. The perpetrator, a resourceful sort, employed a few helper contracts which promptly vanished after the deed, presumably to avoid awkward questions. Very clever, if rather unsporting.

some other balancer related stuff looking like an exploit considering heavy interactions with tornado

yearn, rocket pool, origin, dinero and other LST going around

– Togbe (@Togbe0x) November 30, 2025

Yearn, in a statement with all the soothing tone one might expect, assures us that V2 and V3 Vaults remain perfectly secure. It seems the bother is limited to this rather unfortunate yETH implementation.

The protocol’s TVL (Total Value Locked, whatever that may be) is still above $600 million, suggesting the core systems haven’t been unduly disturbed. Rather like discovering the drawing-room hasn’t been ransacked, despite a small robbery in the pantry.

YFI Price Spikes as Market Reverses Initial Panic

But here’s the truly diverting bit! Despite all the unpleasantness, the price of YFI actually rose! It leapt from around $4,080 to over $4,160 in the space of an hour. The financial markets, you see, are frequently less sensible than a flock of pigeons. 🕊️

Apparently, the initial reports of a “Yearn exploit” caused a flurry of speculative short-selling. Given the token’s limited supply and unfortunate tendency to plummet during such events, it was a perfectly logical, if rather rash, maneuver.

YFI Price Chart

However, as it became clear this was an isolated incident relating to yETH-and not Yearn’s Vaults-the short sellers, in a spot of bother, were forced to buy back those short positions, triggering a brief, undignified stampede and thus, a price spike.

Now, YFI has a rather restricted circulating supply of only 33,984 tokens, which makes it surprisingly susceptible to these sorts of market wobbles. It’s a bit like trying to steer a yacht with a teaspoon, really. And the derivatives market was also displaying a spot of instability, naturally.

As matters stand, it appears the losses are contained to the yETH and Balancer pools involved. Investigations continue, but whether anyone will actually recover the funds remains open to question. One wouldn’t bet on it.

The market, I suspect, will be awaiting a formal statement from Yearn explaining precisely what went wrong, how they plan to fix it, and what they’re going to do about it all. A messy business, all in all. 🧐

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2025-12-01 03:22