Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.
anchored·5RKC6t…MeBbSummary
Mars Perps was the perpetual futures product of Mars Protocol, deployed on the Neutron outpost of the Cosmos ecosystem. On December 14, 2025, the protocol suffered a mechanism design exploit that drained $973,079 USDC from lending depositors via skew-based same-block arbitrage. The exploit ultimately triggered a full protocol wind-down, which concluded in March 2026 with user funds returned and community channels closed.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 1 more
Timeline(12 events)
March 2022
Mars Protocol launches on the Terra blockchain with a lending and borrowing product; TVL peaks near $350 million.
May 2022
Terra/LUNA ecosystem collapses. Mars Protocol loses the majority of its TVL. Combined $1.2 billion TVL decline across Mars and Astroport.
December 2022
Mars Protocol announces migration from Terra to the Cosmos ecosystem as a sovereign application chain.
31 January 2023
Mars Hub launches as an independent Cosmos application chain; MARS tokens distributed via airdrop to eligible Terra Classic holders.
14 November 2025
Attacker begins pre-staging operation via Tornado Cash, making seven ETH deposits approximately one month before the exploit.
14 December 2025
Mars Perps exploit executed on Neutron outpost. Attacker uses skew-based arbitrage to drain $973,079 USDC using $49,783 initial capital. Funds exit to Binance in five cross-chain hops. Mars Protocol disables all perps contracts.
14 December 2025
Mars Protocol publicly flags attacker addresses and announces investigation. Neutron outpost on Osmosis confirmed unaffected.
28 January 2026
Mars Protocol and Neutron Foundation launch remediation claim portal for affected USDC lending depositors. Claiming window open through February 27, 2026.
21 February 2026
Governance vote on MRC-165 (protocol wind-down) opens. Vote runs from February 21 to February 24, 2026.
24 February 2026
MRC-165 passes. Structured wind-down execution commences. Liquidation LTVs begin declining approximately 3% per day.
21 March 2026
All liquidation LTVs set to 0. Remaining borrow positions liquidated. Final debt clearance and fund distribution executed.
23 March 2026
Mars Protocol Foundation ceases operations. Discord and Telegram channels closed. Protocol wind-down confirmed complete; all user funds returned to wallets.
Decision Log
- hash: ArSJmL7MELzC11hho54yM9Nfun5LnNw4hVx5iiW8avfc
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 9 of 23 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:19 AM
last updated: 8/30/2026, 3:54:58 AM
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