Is Moonwell Safe?

|Lending
C

Risk Grade: C (46/100)

Moonwell is rated as elevated risk — multiple novel mechanisms and notable interaction risks.

High risk — four exploits in three years and a removed bug bounty program suggest systemic security weaknesses

A lending protocol on Base and Optimism where you deposit crypto to earn interest or borrow against it, managing $500M in deposits. It has been hacked four times in three years, including a $1M exploit in November 2025 caused by a faulty price feed. Its C- grade reflects this pattern of repeated security failures.

TVL

$50M

Mechanisms

7

Interactions

6

Value Grade

D+

Key Risks for Moonwell Users

1.

Hacked four times in three years. The November 2025 exploit used a faulty price feed that valued one token at $5.8M instead of $3,500. An attacker borrowed $1M against worthless collateral.

2.

The bug bounty program was removed in February 2025. Within months, the protocol suffered $2.7M in additional exploits. Without bounties, security researchers have no incentive to report vulnerabilities.

3.

During the October 2025 market crash, the protocol accumulated $1.7M in bad debt when prices dropped too fast for the system to sell-off risky positions in time.

Top Risk Factors

  • Four major exploits in three years including a $1M Chainlink oracle manipulation in November 2025 and $1.7M bad debt from October 2025 crash
  • Removed Immunefi bug bounty program in February 2025, eliminating white-hat financial incentives months before suffering $2.7M in exploits
  • Compound v2 fork inherits known liquidation fragility during correlated market downturns with cascading bad debt risk

Risk Score Breakdown

Moonwell's highest risk area is Track Record (12/15). Here's how each dimension contributes to the overall 46/100 score:

Mechanism Novelty2/15
Interaction Severity13/20
Oracle Surface3/10
Documentation Gaps3/10
Track Record12/15
Scale Exposure3/10
Regulatory Risk3/10
Vitality Risk7/10

Read the Full Moonwell Risk Report

This protocol has 3 collapse scenarios. 2 critical and 3 high-severity interaction risks identified. See the full mechanism classification, interaction matrix, and deep-dive recommendations.

View Full Report →

Related Lending Safety Analyses

Related Lending Investment Analyses

Ratings use Hindenrank's eight-dimension risk rubric. Lower score = lower risk. Grades range from A (safest) to F (riskiest). This is not financial advice.