Decentralized exchange Bunni has announced its shutdown following a devastating $8.4 million exploit in September, marking it as the second crypto project to close operations this week. In a statement posted on X, the team revealed that a lack of funds has forced them to wind down. They explained that the recent exploit halted Bunni’s growth, and the capital required for essential audits and monitoring—estimated in the six to seven figures—is beyond their means. The team was unable to secure sufficient funding to cover development and operational costs needed to revive the protocol.
This closure comes shortly after the founding team behind the layer-1 blockchain Kadena announced their decision to cease operations amid challenging market conditions.
The exploit on September 2 targeted Bunni across Ethereum and the layer-2 Unichain network, resulting in halted operations and losses totaling $8.4 million. Bunni, built on Uniswap v4, offered liquidity providers optimized returns through its unique Liquidity Distribution Function. Before the exploit, the project had seen exponential growth, with TVL soaring from $2.23 million in June to nearly $80 million by mid-August.
Despite shutting down, Bunni’s team has taken a significant step by relicensing its v2 smart contracts under the open-source MIT license, moving away from the Business Source License. This move allows developers unrestricted use of Bunni’s innovations such as liquidity distribution functions, surge fees, and autonomous rebalancing.
Users can continue withdrawing assets from the platform until further notice. The team also announced plans to distribute remaining treasury assets to holders of BUNNI, LIT, and veBUNNI tokens after securing legal approval, though team members will not receive any funds. Additionally, efforts to recover the stolen $8.4 million are ongoing in collaboration with law enforcement.
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