{"investigation":{"slug":"prxvt","entity_name":"PRXVT","trust_score":38,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.62,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"PRXVT (ticker: PRXVT) is a privacy-focused AI-agent token launched on the Base blockchain via the Virtuals Protocol launchpad. The project markets itself as the governance and utility token for px402, an alleged zero-knowledge payment SDK designed to enable anonymous USDC transactions for autonomous AI agents. In early January 2026 the project's staking contract was exploited via a reward-claiming vulnerability, causing the token price to crash to an all-time low and prompting a contested emergency removal of a liquidity pool that was publicly represented as locked for ten years.","sections":[{"content":"PRXVT is an ERC-20 token deployed on Base Mainnet (original contract: 0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0; migrated contract: 0x4b5d32a07b8d3ec5d6928caa30196f8dd6a7c5a9). The token was launched through the Virtuals Protocol launchpad, a platform on Base that allows developers to deploy AI agent tokens and pair them with VIRTUAL liquidity. PRXVT is described by its team as the value-accrual layer for px402, a privacy payment protocol that allegedly combines zero-knowledge proofs with ERC-4337 account abstraction to let AI agents conduct unlinkable USDC transactions on Base. The official website is prxvt.com and the team's X account is @PRXVTai. Total maximum supply is 1,000,000,000 PRXVT. As of late May 2026, approximately 624 million tokens were in circulation with a market capitalization near $1.1 million USD. The token's all-time high of approximately $0.009 was reached in December 2025, shortly after launch.","heading":"Project Overview","sources":[{"url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/prxvt-by-virtuals","name":"coingecko.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://web3.bitget.com/en/swap/base/0xC2FF2E5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","name":"web3.bitget.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://messari.io/project/prxvt-by-virtuals","name":"messari.io","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"In early January 2026, the PRXVT staking contract (stPRXVT, address: 0xdac30a5e2612206e2756836ed6764ec5817e6fff on Base) was exploited in a protocol logic attack. According to the DeFiHackLabs proof-of-concept reproduction (PRXVT_exp.sol, filed under the 2026-01 directory), an attacker spent approximately 1 ETH to acquire PRXVT tokens via Uniswap's Universal Router — routing through WETH and VIRTUAL as intermediaries — then staked 400,000 PRXVT into the stPRXVT contract to begin accruing rewards. The attacker then deployed a series of ephemeral contracts via CREATE2 (attack contract: 0x702980b1ed754c214b79192a4d7c39106f19bce9; attacker EOA: 0x7407f9bdc4140d5e284ea7de32a9de6037842f45) to claim staking rewards from fresh contract addresses, each of which was treated by the staking contract as an independent claimant. The vulnerability lay in how the stPRXVT contract calculated earned amounts: it failed to account for reward claims made via contract-instantiation patterns, allowing the attacker to drain reward pools repeatedly. Total losses were recorded at approximately 32.8 ETH. The security incident was catalogued in BlockThreat's Week 1 2026 newsletter. Social media commentators described the token as having been dumped following the exploit, with investors losing money.","heading":"Staking Contract Exploit (January 2026)","sources":[{"url":"https://github.com/SunWeb3Sec/DeFiHackLabs/blob/main/src/test/2026-01/PRXVT_exp.sol","name":"github.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://blockthreat.com/blockthreat-week-1-2026/","name":"blockthreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://x.com/AndreaPN/status/2006741203480621182","name":"x.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Following the exploit, the PRXVT team took the unusual step of removing the PRXVT/VIRTUAL liquidity pool from Virtuals Protocol. This action raised immediate questions from the community because liquidity pools created on Virtuals Protocol are publicly represented as locked for ten years, a core safety guarantee designed to prevent unilateral fund removal. A developer-researcher posting as @evansWeb3Dev on X noted that this was the first publicly documented instance of a Virtuals LP lock being bypassed and argued the action created a precedent the market had not priced in. A separate technical commenter (@ethermage on X) clarified that while LPs are locked by default for ten years, the Virtuals smart contract contains an escape hatch requiring two keys — the founding developer wallet and the Virtuals protocol controller — that can be used in cases of a confirmed hack. Independent on-chain data (sourced via Arkham and ChainCatcher) indicated that a suspected Virtuals Protocol address withdrew 4 million VIRTUAL from an LP wallet associated with the incident and subsequently deposited 1 million VIRTUAL (approximately $4.07 million USD at the time) into the Bybit exchange. The PRXVT team stated they removed liquidity to prevent the attacker from conducting additional token dumps, and announced that users who held leveraged positions through Wasabi at the time of the LP removal would be compensated.","heading":"Emergency Liquidity Removal and Breach of LP Lock Expectations","sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/evansWeb3Dev/status/2006732832228471156","name":"x.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://x.com/ethermage/status/2006940832604237882","name":"x.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2160162","name":"chaincatcher.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://x.com/AndreaPN/status/2006741203480621182","name":"x.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"PRXVT has been flagged by ZachXBT, one of the most cited on-chain investigators in the cryptocurrency space, who joined venture firm Paradigm as an incident response advisor in February 2025 and regularly publishes exploit findings via X threads and a Telegram channel. The precise content of ZachXBT's flag regarding PRXVT has not been independently verified from a publicly accessible primary source at the time of this report, as the relevant post may be paywalled or behind access controls. Community discussions on X confirm the project received heightened scrutiny from security researchers in the wake of the January 2026 exploit. The PRXVT staking incident also appeared in the paid section of the BlockThreat newsletter, which covers post-mortems and indicators of compromise for DeFi security incidents, corroborating that the event was considered significant enough for professional security tracking. Social media commentators have raised concerns about the absence of formal security audits for the staking contract specifically (as opposed to the Virtuals Protocol base contracts, which were audited by PeckShield in March and October 2024) and the team's lack of public identity disclosure.","heading":"ZachXBT Flag and Community Scrutiny","sources":[{"url":"https://blockthreat.com/blockthreat-week-1-2026/","name":"blockthreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","name":"en.wikipedia.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://x.com/AndreaPN/status/2006741203480621182","name":"x.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://whitepaper.virtuals.io/info-hub/security/security-audit-reports","name":"whitepaper.virtuals.io","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Following the January 2026 exploit, PRXVT migrated from its original contract (0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0) to a new contract (0x4b5d32a07b8d3ec5d6928caa30196f8dd6a7c5a9) on Base Mainnet. Both contracts implement the AgentTokenV2 minimal proxy pattern used by Virtuals Protocol and have their source code verified on BaseScan. The migration indicates a new staking and liquidity deployment following the exploit, though no public security audit of the replacement staking contract has been identified in available sources. The token's all-time low of approximately $0.000034 was recorded in January 2026, coinciding with the exploit period, representing a drawdown of more than 99% from its December 2025 all-time high of approximately $0.009. As of late May 2026, the token had partially recovered to approximately $0.0018, representing roughly an 80% decline from its all-time high. The primary trading venue is Uniswap V2 on Base, through the PRXVT/VIRTUAL pair.","heading":"Token Migration and Contract History","sources":[{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://basescan.org/address/0x4b5d32a07b8d3ec5d6928caa30196f8dd6a7c5a9","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/prxvt-by-virtuals","name":"coingecko.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.geckoterminal.com/base/pools/0xacad49114f03e0d24bd79abf206ac9523d726fde","name":"geckoterminal.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"PRXVT markets px402 as a privacy-first payment SDK leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and ERC-4337 account abstraction for AI agents. The protocol targets a genuine emerging use case — private autonomous payments in the Virtuals AI agent ecosystem — but several risk factors are present. The team behind @PRXVTai has not publicly disclosed the identities of its founders or developers; no KYC-verified team members have been identified in available sources. No independent security audit of PRXVT's custom staking contracts has been publicly published, and the January 2026 exploit demonstrated that the project's smart contracts contained a material reward-claim logic flaw. The px402 SDK was described as 'soon to be launched' in multiple exchange listing descriptions as of early 2026, suggesting core product functionality had not yet been delivered at the time of the exploit. The project's micro-cap market status (approximately $1.1 million USD market cap as of May 2026) and low daily trading volume ($42,000–$43,000) make it susceptible to price manipulation. The LP lock precedent set by the emergency removal may also affect market confidence in similar Virtuals Protocol projects.","heading":"Project Claims and Risk Assessment","sources":[{"url":"https://www.mexc.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/info","name":"mexc.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.lbank.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/what-is","name":"lbank.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://holder.io/coins/prxvt/","name":"holder.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.coincarp.com/currencies/prxvt-by-virtuals/","name":"coincarp.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2025-12","event":"PRXVT token launches on Base via Virtuals Protocol launchpad, reaching an all-time high of approximately $0.009 during December 2025.","source":"","date_original":"2025-12-01"},{"date":"2026","event":"Suspected Virtuals Protocol address withdraws 4 million VIRTUAL from LP wallet and deposits 1 million VIRTUAL (~$4.07M) into Bybit, per ChainCatcher/Arkham data.","source":"","date_original":"2026-01-01"},{"date":"2026-01-05","event":"PRXVT staking contract (stPRXVT) exploited via CREATE2-based reward claim vulnerability. Approximately 32.8 ETH is drained. Token price crashes to an all-time low near $0.000034. Team pauses staking and triggers emergency LP removal.","source":""},{"date":"2026-01-05","event":"PRXVT/VIRTUAL liquidity pool removed from Virtuals Protocol, triggering community debate about the ten-year LP lock guarantee and whether the escape hatch sets a problematic precedent.","source":""},{"date":"2026-01-06","event":"PRXVT team (@PRXVTai) publicly commits to compensate holders affected by the exploit, including users who held leveraged positions via Wasabi Protocol at the time of LP removal.","source":""},{"date":"2026-01-07","event":"BlockThreat Week 1 2026 newsletter catalogues the PRXVT staking exploit alongside other incidents, including Unleash Protocol and Valinity. Full post-mortem details are paywalled.","source":""},{"date":"2026-01-10","event":"DeFiHackLabs publishes a Foundry-based proof-of-concept reproduction of the PRXVT staking exploit (PRXVT_exp.sol) in its 2026-01 directory.","source":""},{"date":"2026","event":"PRXVT migrates from original token contract (0xc2ff2e5a...) to new contract (0x4b5d32a0...) on Base Mainnet following the exploit.","source":"","date_original":"2026-01-01"},{"date":"2026-05-28","event":"PRXVT trading at approximately $0.0018, with a market cap near $1.1 million USD and daily volume near $43,000. ZachXBT flag on the project is noted in AVOID.NET records.","source":""}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/prxvt-by-virtuals","name":"coingecko.com","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251113045515/https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/prxvt-by-virtuals","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2025-11-13T04:55:15+00:00"},{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260211154708/https://basescan.org/token/0xc2ff2e5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-02-11T15:47:08+00:00"},{"url":"https://web3.bitget.com/en/swap/base/0xC2FF2E5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","name":"web3.bitget.com","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251209144857/https://web3.bitget.com/en/swap/base/0xC2FF2E5aa9023b1bb688178a4a547212f4614bc0","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2025-12-09T14:48:57+00:00"},{"url":"https://messari.io/project/prxvt-by-virtuals","name":"messari.io","type":"other","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://github.com/SunWeb3Sec/DeFiHackLabs/blob/main/src/test/2026-01/PRXVT_exp.sol","name":"github.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829033305/https://github.com/SunWeb3Sec/DeFiHackLabs/blob/main/src/test/2026-01/PRXVT_exp.sol","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T03:33:05+00:00"},{"url":"https://blockthreat.com/blockthreat-week-1-2026/","name":"blockthreat.com","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260518214228/https://blockthreat.com/blockthreat-week-1-2026/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-18T21:42:28+00:00"},{"url":"https://x.com/AndreaPN/status/2006741203480621182","name":"x.com","type":"other","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://x.com/evansWeb3Dev/status/2006732832228471156","name":"x.com","type":"other","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://x.com/ethermage/status/2006940832604237882","name":"x.com","type":"other","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2160162","name":"chaincatcher.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829044915/https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2160162","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T04:49:15+00:00"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","name":"en.wikipedia.org","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260711020137/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-11T02:01:37+00:00"},{"url":"https://whitepaper.virtuals.io/info-hub/security/security-audit-reports","name":"whitepaper.virtuals.io","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260521050409/https://whitepaper.virtuals.io/info-hub/security/security-audit-reports","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-21T05:04:09+00:00"},{"url":"https://basescan.org/address/0x4b5d32a07b8d3ec5d6928caa30196f8dd6a7c5a9","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829174911/https://basescan.org/address/0x4b5d32a07b8d3ec5d6928caa30196f8dd6a7c5a9","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T17:49:11+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.geckoterminal.com/base/pools/0xacad49114f03e0d24bd79abf206ac9523d726fde","name":"geckoterminal.com","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251124083147/https://www.geckoterminal.com/base/pools/0xacad49114f03e0d24bd79abf206ac9523d726fde","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2025-11-24T08:31:47+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.mexc.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/info","name":"mexc.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829051032/https://www.mexc.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/info","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T05:10:32+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.lbank.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/what-is","name":"lbank.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829090613/https://www.lbank.com/price/prxvt-by-virtuals/what-is","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T09:06:13+00:00"},{"url":"https://holder.io/coins/prxvt/","name":"holder.io","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251213032559/https://holder.io/coins/prxvt/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2025-12-13T03:25:59+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.coincarp.com/currencies/prxvt-by-virtuals/","name":"coincarp.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260830200025/https://www.coincarp.com/currencies/prxvt-by-virtuals/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-30T20:00:25+00:00"}],"source_tags":["defillama"],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-sonnet-4-6","created_at":"2026-05-04T02:54:19.520463+00:00","updated_at":"2026-08-30T20:07:20.70172+00:00"}}