Nirvana Finance
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anchored·aJj8i7…P112Summary
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
10 entities · 60 linked investigations- 76w4SB…TAWH→mentioned with→Nirvana Finance(50%)
- CxuuSE…JnaG→mentioned with→Nirvana Finance(50%)
- Nirvana Finance→mentioned with→Terra/Luna(60%)
- Nirvana Finance→mentioned with→Crema Finance(80%)
- Nirvana Finance→mentioned with→Wormhole Bridge(80%)
- Wormhole→mentioned with→Wormhole Bridge(80%)
- Wormhole→mentioned with→Terra/Luna(60%)
- Wormhole→mentioned with→Solana(80%)
- Wormhole→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Nirvana Finance→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- + 10 more
Timeline(11 events)
2022
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 reporting28 July 2022
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 / CertiK28 July 2022
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 Labs28 July 2022
Stolen funds are bridged from Solana to Ethereum via the Wormhole bridge and converted to DAI at Ethereum address 0xB9AE2624Ab08661F010185d72Dd506E199E67C09.
CertiK Incident Analysis31 July 2022
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 LabsJuly 2023
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 SDNYDecember 2023
Shakeeb Ahmed pleads guilty to one count of computer fraud and agrees to forfeit over $12.3 million.
The Block12 April 2024
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 / CoinDesk5 June 2024
Approximately $2.6 million in DAI is returned to Nirvana Finance as court-ordered restitution from Shakeeb Ahmed's sentence.
TRM LabsSeptember 2024
Nirvana Finance opens a claims portal for affected ANA, NIRV, and prANA token holders to claim proportional shares of recovered funds.
DeFi Teller / ChainCatcher17 December 2024
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
- slot 423324608 · hash 36PXoMPaYrJcdPoSFKm72NSrkh8uq1ZVH9FgtQYCdsKb
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 decision). 16 of 18 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/31/2026, 6:59:48 AM
last updated: 5/31/2026, 6:59:48 AM
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