Mango Markets, a Solana-based DeFi platform, is shutting down following a devastating $117 million exploit in 2022. The community overwhelmingly approved the closure, with 23,347,212 governance votes in favor.
The shutdown process begins January 13, 2025, at 8 PM UTC, marking the last opportunity for users to close their positions. Leading up to this date, the platform is introducing strict new measures.
Mango V4 will slash its target lending ratio from 50% to 0.1% of deposits and enforce sharp interest rate hikes on major tokens like SOL, USDC, USDT, and ETH. Additionally, collateral requirements will increase tenfold, making it far harder for users to open new positions.
The decision follows the October 2022 exploit, where Avraham Eisenberg manipulated MNGO token prices by 1,000% using $5 million in USDC. This allowed him to borrow against inflated collateral and drain $117 million from the platform.
Despite Mango Markets’ attempts to negotiate with Eisenberg, including offering a bug bounty, the funds were never fully recovered. Legal proceedings against Eisenberg began in October 2024, with fraud and market manipulation charges potentially carrying a 25-year sentence.
Eisenberg had previously justified his actions as a “profitable trading strategy” and even tried to secure a portion of the stolen funds through a governance proposal. The unanimous vote to shut down reflects the community’s acceptance of Mango Markets’ fate, marking the end of its turbulent journey.
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