Ostium Protocol
Summary
Ostium Protocol is an Arbitrum-based decentralized perpetuals exchange specializing in real-world asset (RWA) trading, founded in 2022 by Harvard alumni Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro and backed by $27.8 million from General Catalyst, Jump Crypto, and Coinbase Ventures. On July 15, 2026, an attacker compromised an off-chain oracle signer private key and injected fabricated BTC/USD prices into the protocol's PriceUpKeep forwarder contract, draining $23,752,746 USDC from the liquidity provider vault through approximately 20 looped trades. Stolen funds were converted to roughly 12,084 ETH and routed through Tornado Cash within hours, and as of late July 2026 no funds have been recovered.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(11 events)
2022-01-01
Ostium Labs founded by Harvard alumni Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro
Fortune / The Block2024-01-01
Zellic completes smart contract audit returning 19 findings (2 critical); key custody and off-chain infrastructure explicitly excluded from scope
CryptoTicker2025-09-01
Pashov Audit Group completes security review covering trading-engine contracts only; PriceUpKeep components not included
CryptoTicker2025-12-03
Ostium announces $20 million Series A co-led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto, with Coinbase Ventures and Wintermute participating; total funding reaches $27.8 million
BusinessWire / CoinDesk2026-07-15
Attacker compromises off-chain oracle signer private key and executes primary exploit transaction (0x359f8c05...d4870e0) at 14:18 UTC, batching ~20 looped trades using fabricated BTC/USD prices ($5,000 open / ~$60,000 close) to drain $23,752,746 USDC from the OLP vault
DeFi Prime / CoinDesk / Blockaid2026-07-15
Blockchain security firm Blockaid flags the exploit on-chain; Ostium pauses all trading within one hour of the first malicious transaction and posts acknowledgment to X
crypto.news / Decrypt2026-07-15
Stolen USDC converted to approximately 12,084 ETH and routed through Tornado Cash within hours of the attack
CryptoTicker / Rescana2026-07-15
CoinDesk publishes initial coverage reporting approximately $18 million drained; early estimates range $11.86M–$22M before official confirmation
CoinDesk2026-07-17
Galaxy Research publishes technical analysis tracing eight payout transactions totaling $23,752,746 USDC to the attacker's single recipient wallet
CryptoTicker2026-07-22
Ostium announces trading will resume on July 23 at 10:00 a.m. ET in phases; existing open positions to be repriced at live market values
CryptoTimes2026-07-23
Ostium reopens trading in phased approach; OLP deposits remain suspended; compensation plan for affected liquidity providers pending; stolen funds remain unrecovered
CoinPaprika / CryptoTimesDecision Log
- #1publish⛓ pending7/29/2026, 11:06:16 PMhash: 5W47a1VDgKUZBXfwBEPDj3ezBJtFT8qTeFuEP8usmGit
20 of 21 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 7/29/2026, 11:06:05 PM
last updated: 7/30/2026, 3:07:06 PM
avoid.net — verified advice for a post-truth world