Matcha Meta Confirms Devastating Hack After $16.8M Loss
Another day, another nine-figure crypto heist. Matcha Meta, a decentralized exchange aggregator, just confirmed a security breach that siphoned off a staggering sum—$16.8 million vanished into the digital ether.
Anatomy of a Breach
The exploit didn't rely on fancy new tech. Attackers exploited a known vulnerability in the platform's smart contract logic, executing a series of complex, rapid-fire transactions that drained funds before automated safeguards could react. It's a classic case of speed over stealth, leveraging existing code flaws against the protocol itself.
The Aftermath and the Irony
User funds in connected wallets remain secure, the team claims, but the platform's core liquidity took the direct hit. The incident triggers the usual cycle: investigations launch, blockchain analysts trace the stolen funds across wallets, and the community debates whether this was an 'attack' or a brutal, but legitimate, 'code execution.' Meanwhile, the price of the platform's native token predictably tanks—because nothing boosts investor confidence like a headline with 'hack' and 'millions lost.'
A Costly Reminder
This breach serves as a multi-million-dollar refresher course in Web3's foundational tension: the promise of trustless systems versus the peril of immutable code. Every line written is a potential attack vector; every audit, a race against time. For an industry built on 'decentralizing trust,' it's ironic how often that trust gets centralized in the hope that a few auditors caught all the bugs. The finance jab? In traditional finance, you might get a bailout. In DeFi, you get a post-mortem report and a lesson in 'self-custody'—which, in this case, wouldn't have helped you one bit.
Matcha Meta hacker swapped 3k Ether coins from victims
According to the blockchain security firm PeckShield, the attacker drained funds via token approvals and swaps. They moved approximately 10.5 million USDC from victim addresses on the Base, an Ether layer-2 blockchain, then swapped the stablecoins for 3,655 Ether, consolidating value into a more liquid asset.
After completing the swaps, the attacker began bridging the Ether from Base to the ethereum mainnet to hide any transaction trails. Bridging is the process of transferring assets between blockchains using smart contracts or intermediary protocols. Although it is considered “legitimate” in most cases, hackers use it because it makes it nearly impossible to track their operations.
The perpetrator had previously granted token allowances to MOVE funds without the user’s signature, which grants permission for a smart contract to spend their tokens. If an allowance is set to unlimited, a malicious or compromised contract can drain funds until the balance is depleted.
Matcha Meta said users who interacted with the platform using its One-Time Approval system were not impacted. That feature routes token permissions through 0x’s AllowanceHolder and Settler contracts, limiting a trader’s exposure by granting approvals for a single transaction.
“After reviewing with 0x’s protocol team, we have confirmed that the nature of the incident was not associated with 0x’s AllowanceHolder or Settler contracts,” Matcha Meta wrote on X later on. The company added that users who disabled One-Time Approvals and set direct allowances on aggregator contracts “assume the risks of each aggregator.”
After reviewing with 0x's protocol team, we have confirmed that the nature of the incident was not associated with 0x's AllowanceHolder or Settler contracts.
Users who have interacted with Matcha Meta via One-Time Approval are thus safe.
Users who have disabled One-Time… https://t.co/VQVmj4LL0F
— Matcha Meta 🎆 (@matchametaxyz) January 25, 2026
The DEX swap platform removed the function for users to set direct allowances on aggregators through its interface, while asking the community to revoke any existing permissions on SwapNet’s router contract.
DeFi smart contract hacks persist in 2026
The Matcha Meta incident comes just six days after Makina Finance, a decentralized finance protocol with automated execution features, suffered a network breach that drained its DUSD/USDC liquidity pool on Curve.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, hackers extracted about 1,299 Ether from Makina’s Curve stablecoin pool, worth $4.13 million at the time. The breach involved non-custodial liquidity providers connected to an on-chain pricing oracle, a data feed used by smart contracts to determine asset values.
Per the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, much of today’s dark web money laundering involves coin swap services, including instant exchanges that run through standalone websites or Telegram channels.
Last year, the decentralized exchange aggregator CoWSwap reported a breach that resulted in losses of more than $180,000. About $180,000 worth of DAI was stolen through CoWSwap’s trade execution GPv2Settlement smart contract.
The platform said the compromised contract had access only to protocol fees collected over one week, stemming from the exploitation of a solver account. In CoWSwap’s model, users sign trade intents that are passed to third-party solvers, which compete to provide the best prices and store collected fees.
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