Nirvana Finance
Summary
Nirvana Finance was a Solana-based algorithmic DeFi protocol issuing the ANA metastable token and the NIRV stablecoin. On July 28, 2022, the protocol was exploited via a flash loan attack orchestrated by security engineer Shakeeb Ahmed, who drained approximately $3.5 million — effectively the entirety of the treasury — causing ANA to collapse ~85% and NIRV to permanently lose its dollar peg. Ahmed was later convicted in the first-ever U.S. criminal prosecution for hacking a DeFi smart contract and was sentenced to three years in prison in April 2024; the protocol attempted a partial relaunch as Nirvana V2 in December 2024.
Connected Entities
3 entities · 10 linked investigations- 76w4SBe2of2wWUsx2FjkkwD29rRznfvEkBa1upSbTAWH→mentioned with→Nirvana Finance(50%)
- CxuuSEv67PzNkMxqCvHeDUr6HKaadoz8NhTfxbQSJnaG→mentioned with→Nirvana Finance(50%)
- + 1 more
Timeline(11 events)
2022-01-01
Nirvana Finance launches on Solana with the ANA metastable token and NIRV stablecoin. Protocol TVL briefly reaches approximately $25 million in its first week.
Ackee Blockchain / Community reporting2022-07-28
Shakeeb Ahmed executes a flash loan attack using $10.25M USDC borrowed from Solend, manipulates ANA's price from ~$8 to ~$24, and drains approximately $3.5 million in USDT from Nirvana's treasury. ANA collapses ~85%; NIRV loses its dollar peg.
CoinDesk / The Block / CertiK2022-07-28
Nirvana Finance suspends trading functions and posts a message offering a $300,000 white-hat bounty and cessation of investigation in exchange for return of stolen funds.
TRM Labs2022-07-28
Stolen funds are bridged from Solana to Ethereum via the Wormhole bridge and converted to DAI at Ethereum address 0xB9AE2624Ab08661F010185d72Dd506E199E67C09.
CertiK Incident Analysis2022-07-31
Nirvana Finance publishes an official incident statement on Medium. Team increases bounty offer to $600,000; Ahmed demands $1.4 million and refuses settlement.
TRM Labs2023-07-01
Shakeeb Ahmed is publicly charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York with computer fraud in connection with the Nirvana Finance hack and a second unnamed cryptocurrency exchange hack.
U.S. DOJ SDNY2023-12-01
Shakeeb Ahmed pleads guilty to one count of computer fraud and agrees to forfeit over $12.3 million.
The Block2024-04-12
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero sentences Shakeeb Ahmed to three years in prison, three years supervised release, $12.3 million forfeiture, and over $5 million in victim restitution. This is the first-ever U.S. criminal conviction for hacking a DeFi smart contract.
U.S. DOJ SDNY / CoinDesk2024-06-05
Approximately $2.6 million in DAI is returned to Nirvana Finance as court-ordered restitution from Shakeeb Ahmed's sentence.
TRM Labs2024-09-01
Nirvana Finance opens a claims portal for affected ANA, NIRV, and prANA token holders to claim proportional shares of recovered funds.
DeFi Teller / ChainCatcher2024-12-17
Nirvana V2 launches publicly, introducing a redesigned Market-Driven Mint mechanism and Automated Token-Managed Adjustments governance. The relaunch includes a permanent revenue-sharing structure for original hack victims.
GlobeNewswireDecision Log
- hash: 36PXoMPaYrJcdPoSFKm72NSrkh8uq1ZVH9FgtQYCdsKb
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/31/2026, 6:59:48 AM
last updated: 5/31/2026, 6:59:52 AM
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