In a remarkable turn of events, the Ethereum-based DeFi project, Indexed Finance, narrowly averted what could have been a financial disaster, as it grappled with not one, but two sophisticated hijack attempts on its protocol DAO’s treasury. The defiant stance taken by the project’s community members and founders ensured the safeguarding of their assets, valued at a substantial $120,000.
The drama unfolded when Laurence Day, a pivotal figure within Indexed Finance and a former executive, revealed the sinister underpinnings of the attacks. In a dramatic recount of the events on social media, Day outlined how villains of the piece purchased large quantities of Indexed’s native token – NDX, with malevolent intentions to wrest control of the DAO’s treasury through underhanded proposals.
Caught off-guard by the first subversive proposal, lacking in title and description, the Indexed community was nearly blindsided as this Proposal 24 teetered on the brink of passing due to its inconspicuousness. The voting was already underway and inching toward approval when the threat was identified.
The quick-thinking Day spurred into action, corralling the community to sound off a clarion call to arms. The response was swift and decisive, as a collective effort sufficed to nip the perilous Proposal 24 in the bud, derailing the first assassination attempt on the protocol’s financial governance.
The palpable tension in the aftermath of the first attack was a prelude to the second strike that the community had braced for, certain that a new adversary might emerge from the shadows, emboldened by the close shave of the premiere attack. In anticipation, theDAO adopted Proposal 26. This ‘poison pill’ measure armed them with the authority to obliterate the treasury’s assets, definitively, should that be the sole option to fend off a repeat attack.
True to the DAO’s premonitions, another assailant lurked into view, managing this time to snare approval for Proposal 27. Nonetheless, a stipulation in the platform’s governance required proposals to be queued for a mandatory 48-hour period pre-execution. It was within this tenuous waiting period that the hijacker reached out to the DAO, striking a bargain to reverse the poison pill proposals in exchange for a split of the treasured booty. But Indexed Co-founder Dillon Kellar had a countermove, presenting the hijacker with a take-it-or-leave-it offer of $10,000 DAI to withdraw his proposal or watch the treasury’s assets evaporate.
Staring down the barrel of impending annihilation of the treasury, the would-be usurper accepted Kellar’s offer, thus securing the second magnificent reprieve for the Indexed DAO’s coffers.
In the aftermath of the relentless incursions, the Indexed Finance DAO saw it fit to reinstate its treasury’s reins to a triumvirate including Laurence Day, Kellar, and an enigmatic individual known as PR0. This threesome will now govern the Treasury with a multi-sig authority, ensuring a blend of oversight and security.
At the close of this nerve-wracking saga, NDX stands at $0.00823 per token, albeit waning by 24.15% on the last day. The token’s daily trading volume has parallely slumped by 44.35%, with commerce valued at $2,347. Despite the turbulence, the project’s resilient defense has served as a testament to the enduring spirit of collective vigilance in the dynamic world of decentralized finance.
