Kinto Token Plummets 91% as Ethereum L2 Project Collapses Following Devastating Hack

Another day, another crypto project learns the hard way that code isn't the only thing that needs auditing.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Kinto's token didn't just dip—it cratered. A 91% freefall doesn't happen by accident. That's the sound of confidence evaporating faster than a memecoin's utility.

Security Isn't Optional

Ethereum Layer 2 projects promise scalability, but this incident proves they still can't outscale human error. The hack didn't just drain funds—it drained the entire project's viability.

When Trust Vanishes

Investors learned the brutal math: 100% security failure equals 91% value destruction. The remaining 9%? That's just hope tax for bag holders.

Wall Street would've suspended trading and called emergency meetings. Crypto just keeps minting new tokens—because why fix the underlying problem when you can just relaunch?

Hack and Failed Rescue Plan

In July, an industry-wide exploit drained about 577 Ether (worth $1.6 million) from Kinto’s protocol. The vulnerability came from the ERC-1967 Proxy standard, a widely used OpenZeppelin codebase. Several projects were affected, but Kinto never fully recovered.

The team raised $1 million in debt to restart its “modular exchange,” yet worsening market conditions killed further fundraising. “Every day that we go on, the funds dwindle further. We’ve operated without salaries since July,” the team wrote in a Medium post. They added that shutting down cleanly was the only responsible choice left.

Kinto will return remaining assets to lenders, including $800,000 of Uniswap liquidity. Lenders are expected to recover about 76% of their loan principal. Victims of the hack will also receive a $1,100 goodwill grant per affected address, with co-founder Ramon Recuero personally contributing over $130,000.

Kinto’s Second Collapse

This is Recuero’s second crypto project to fail. His earlier venture, Babylon Finance, shut down in 2022 after a $3.4 million hack.

Following the shutdown news, the Kinto token (K) has fallen 91% to $0.38, with its market cap barely above $1 million. The token had reached a peak of $14.5 million just weeks earlier in mid-August.

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