Cascade Protocol
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 18 → 29. Problems weighed by who is responsible: incidents the subject suffered −19.2, concerns that are not fraud −18, problems around the subject, caused by others −0.8; a recent unresolved incident −7.9. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -18 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -19.2 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -0.8 |
| Recent unresolved incident | -7.9 |
| Sum | 19 |
Score: 29/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
Cascade Protocol is a Polychain Capital and Variant-backed perpetual trading platform (self-described as a neo-brokerage) that suffered a $1.34 million USDC exploit of its Cascade Liquidity Strategy (CLS) vault on July 16, 2026. The affected funds came from locked First Wave depositor accounts that users were unable to withdraw prior to the attack, compounding losses. Multiple on-chain analysts had issued public warnings about the protocol's inactivity and declining vault liquidity in the weeks preceding the exploit, but no timely remediation occurred.
Connected Entities
8 entities · 60 linked investigations- Gkfyoj…ejcX→mentioned with→Cascade Protocol(50%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Coinbase(60%)
- Across Protocol→mentioned with→Arbitrum(60%)
- Across Protocol→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Solana(70%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Arbitrum(70%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Across Protocol(80%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Coinbase(65%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Cascade Protocol→mentioned with→Ostium(70%)
- + 5 more
Timeline(8 events)
9 December 2025
Cascade raises $15 million seed round led by Polychain Capital and Variant, with Coinbase Ventures and Archetype participating. Platform announced as a 24/7 perpetual trading neo-brokerage.
CoinDesk21 January 2026
Cascade holds its final pre-allocation event (First Wave), locking user USDC deposits on Arbitrum pending platform public launch. Team then goes largely silent.
CryptoNews6 July 2026
On-chain analyst @mztacat issues public warning urging Cascade depositors to withdraw funds, noting over one month of protocol inactivity and no admin activity. Users are unable to withdraw due to deposit lock.
CryptoNews6 July 2026
Analyst @0xGwoni recommends pulling funds from Cascade, noting vault liquidity had declined by more than 95%.
Crypto Times16 July 2026
Cascade Protocol's CLS vault is exploited. Approximately 1.34 million USDC is drained from locked First Wave depositor funds on Arbitrum. The attacker routes funds through Solana and back to Ethereum via Relay Protocol, converting to DAI. Cascade announces the incident on Discord and suspends all trading and withdrawals.
Crypto Times16 July 2026
PeckShield publishes on-chain attribution, tracing attacker wallets on Arbitrum (0x2B59...9b55, 0x5fa1...72cef), Solana (GkfyojBJqYiASWnepUpTzytep3GsCxg8BoRgUaRhejcX), and Ethereum (0x858...eC206).
Crypto Times / PeckShield16 July 2026
Cascade confirms engagement of SEAL 911 and third-party security firms to investigate the exploit. No post-mortem or reimbursement plan published.
Tron Weekly19 July 2026
Reporting aggregates the Cascade exploit alongside Ostium ($18M) and Across Protocol hacks, citing over $20 million in total crypto losses in a single week.
Crypto TimesDecision Log
- slot 455359365 · hash BHh1JdGSgviBtpZepBT75oczBqNXZaiihvFEBMXmfVh1
- slot 443502930 · hash 5i3yBQnXF8e12KW5geUJR439N8xixihbecsx7u8SYBR2
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (2 decisions). 11 of 13 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 7/30/2026, 5:03:37 PM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:40:45 PM
5 viewsavoid.net — verified advice for a post-truth world