Venus Protocol
High risk — two separate incidents caused $300M+ in losses, and the protocol depends on a blockchain that can be manually shut down
Top Risks
1
History of severe incidents: $200M+ XVS price manipulation liquidation cascade (2021) and $100M+ bad debt from BNB bridge hack (2022)
2
VAI stablecoin peg relies on algorithmic mechanisms backed by volatile crypto collateral on a single chain (BSC)
3
BSC validator centralization risk: chain halts (as in BNB bridge hack) can prevent liquidations and trap protocol assets
Risk Breakdown
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Venus Protocol safe to use?
Venus Protocol receives a C risk grade (49/100) from Hindenrank, where lower scores indicate lower risk. High risk — two separate incidents caused $300M+ in losses, and the protocol depends on a blockchain that can be manually shut down The largest lending protocol on the BNB Chain, where you deposit crypto to earn interest or borrow against your holdings. It manages $1.9B in deposits. Its C- grade reflects two devastating incidents: a $200M+ price manipulation attack in 2021 and $100M+ in bad debt from a blockchain shutdown in 2022.
What are the main risks of using Venus Protocol?
The key risks identified for Venus Protocol are: (1) Attackers pumped the governance token price in 2021 to borrow $200M+ against fake collateral value -- the same attack can happen with any listed token (2) When the BNB Chain was halted during a $568M bridge hack in 2022, Venus could not process any liquidations and accumulated over $100M in bad debt (3) Team members have been targeted by social engineering attacks -- one phishing attack in 2025 cost a user $27M, and a 2022 Zoom hijack drained $680K
What is Venus Protocol's risk score breakdown?
Venus Protocol scores 49/100 across eight risk dimensions: Mechanism Novelty: 2/15, Interaction Severity: 11/20, Oracle Surface: 5/10, Documentation Gaps: 3/10, Track Record: 15/15, Scale Exposure: 7/10, Regulatory Risk: 3/10, Vitality Risk: 3/10. The highest risk area is Track Record at 15/15.
How does Venus Protocol compare to other Lending protocols?
Among 90 rated Lending protocols on Hindenrank, Venus Protocol ranks #85 by safety (lowest risk score = safest). Its 49/100 risk score and C grade place it among the riskier Lending protocols.
Has Venus Protocol ever been hacked or exploited?
Venus Protocol scores 15/15 on the Track Record risk dimension, indicating some history of security incidents or exploits. Higher scores reflect more severe or frequent incidents. Review the full risk report for details.
Last scanned 2026-02-20