The cross-chain lending protocol Radiant Capital has initiated a phased and orderly shutdown. After suffering an attack of approximately $50 million in October 2024, the protocol underwent 18 months of recovery, but its funding and user activity have never returned to pre-incident levels.
TVL drops to approximately $1.17 million
In early 2024, Radiant Capital's total value locked once exceeded $350 million, and its daily protocol fees and revenues often exceeded $100,000, with on-chain lending activity still relatively active at that time.
However, by mid-2024, TVL had fallen below $200 million, indicating a continued outflow of funds. As liquidity decreased, fee revenue also contracted significantly, and user engagement and lending demand slowed down simultaneously.
Agreement enters final stage
Currently, Radiant Capital still has approximately $1.17 million in TVL across Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base, and BSC, with approximately $866,000 in active loans, indicating that there are still users processing lending positions.
To preserve remaining liquidity, the protocol has lowered the borrowing cap to 1 and discontinued incentives, prioritizing withdrawals, repayments, and collateral management. The on-chain claims contract remains operational, and users can still claim compensation through the existing channels.
Fixing vulnerabilities is unlikely to restore liquidity.
Radiant Capital's experience shows that after a security incident, code fixes for DeFi protocols typically recover faster than funds and confidence. Although the attack was addressed, the protocol's TVL remained below $1.2 million by June 2026, well below the pre-incident range of $300 million to $400 million.
Similar situations have occurred with other projects. Uranium Finance failed to recover liquidity after suffering a flash loan attack of approximately $57 million in 2021, and Step Finance shut down in 2026. Multiple cases demonstrate that, after a security incident, vault conditions, community retention, and liquidity return are more crucial in determining whether a protocol continues to survive.
