Morning Edition · Friday, July 31, 2026Published at 1:29 AM EDT · New York

DeFi Exploit Drains Roughly $578,000 as Seoul Police Break Up $19 Million Staking Fraud

A reward-recycling manipulation drained a BNB Chain protocol while South Korean authorities arrested three people over a fake XRP staking platform, part of a steady series of mid-size crypto thefts.

Mid-size crypto theft continued over the past day. Security researchers at DeFiHackLabs published a proof-of-concept for the LULA exploit, a reward-recycle deflation-manipulation attack on BNB Chain that drained roughly 578,000 USDT. In thi…