Solana Neobank Avici Promises Full Refunds After $670000 Smart Contract Exploit

A security breach at Avici, a Solana-based neobanking platform, drained roughly $670,000 from user accounts through an authorization flaw in its smart contracts, prompting the company to commit to full refunds while its native token plunged more than 45%.

The attack, which unfolded on August 28, exploited a vulnerability that allowed the attacker to grant administrative privileges over more than 1,100 collateral accounts. On-chain data shows the hacker funded the operation with only $190 worth of USDC bridged from Ethereum to Solana, using that amount primarily to cover transaction fees across more than 8,857 transactions.

Avici confirmed the incident stemmed from a security breach after initially flagging an anomaly related to card balance withdrawals. The company said it is working with partners on a resolution and has since committed to making affected users whole. "The platform is signaling it will absorb the losses rather than leave users to eat them," according to reporting on the refund commitment.

Technical analysis indicates the attacker called the AddCollateralAdmin function by sending a specific signature packet, which allowed them to register as an administrator in users' collateral accounts. Because the second signature verification was incorrectly routed to the first instruction, the Solana network accepted the attacker's own signature as valid a second time.

Investigators found the median amount stolen per account was approximately $24, while the largest single loss in the examined sample reached $5,268. Between 6:19 PM and 6:34 PM UTC, an initial group of funds totaling roughly $576,000 was moved from the attacker's wallet to other addresses, with additional funds continuing to flow in afterward.

Initial findings suggest the attack did not involve compromising Avici's program upgrade key. The program was neither modified nor updated, and the upgrade key had not been used since March 2025. On-chain data also does not support claims that a central treasury was emptied; funds were withdrawn from individual user accounts rather than a single treasury.

The AVICI token fell sharply following news of the breach, dropping more than 45% at one point and settling around $0.2175 after a 39% decline within 24 hours. The token now trades approximately 96% below its record high of $7.61 reached on November 26, 2025.

Note: Figures compiled from on-chain analysis and market data reported across multiple sources covering the incident.

The Avici breach is the latest in a series of DeFi security incidents. Earlier in the same week, The Sandbox announced 1:1 repayment for victims of a bridge exploit that cost holders $697,000. MANTRA published a report on a separate $3.6 million exploit without detailing recovery plans, and the lending protocol Moonwell lost nearly $9 million to a price-manipulation vulnerability.

While the Avici incident rattled Solana ecosystem participants, institutional demand for XRP investment products continued to strengthen. U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $110.49 million during the week ending August 28, more than doubling the 2026 weekly peak of nearly $60.5 million and setting a new annual record.

Cumulative inflows into U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs climbed to approximately $1.66 billion, with net assets under management reaching around $1.44 billion. The figure still trails the all-time weekly record of $243.95 million set in late 2025.

The inflow surge came despite XRP trading near $1.38 on August 29, down 7% over seven days after a powerful rally earlier in August that saw the token surge more than 40%. Analysts view the divergence between fund flows and price action as a signal of growing institutional demand, with $1.45 acting as a key resistance level and $1.36 as critical support.

ProShares has also expanded its XRP product lineup. A recent SEC filing lists the ProShares XRP ETF as Series S000091571 and the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF as Series S000091573 within the ProShares Trust structure. The filing represents a document-level step rather than a confirmed approval or launch. The leveraged Ultra XRP ETF, trading under ticker UXRP, launched in July 2025 and held approximately $50 million in net assets by late August.

At the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao predicted Bitcoin will surpass gold in market value, potentially within the bull run. Gold currently commands a market capitalization near $32.4 trillion, roughly 10 times Bitcoin's valuation of $1.6 trillion.

"I think Bitcoin will, for sure, become more important than gold," Zhao said during a session titled "The Bitcoin Century." He added that large countries have established mechanisms for valuing and holding gold, and shifting toward Bitcoin "will take some time, but it will happen."

The former Binance CEO also suggested Bitcoin could reach $1 million faster than consensus expectations, though he emphasized utility over price appreciation. He pointed to Bitcoin payments at massive scale and adoption as a retirement and pension fund reserve as key benchmarks for the asset's maturation.

Zhao outlined a recommended government crypto reserve allocation of approximately 50% Bitcoin, 10-20% Ethereum, and the remainder in leading cryptocurrencies. He also predicted AI agents will adopt cryptocurrency for transactions, beginning with stablecoins before transitioning to Bitcoin.

Once added, BigGo Finance appears first in Google Top Stories, so you get the broadest, most up-to-the-minute, and most comprehensive global financial news first.