Pickle Finance
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 10 → 50. Problems weighed by who is responsible: concerns that are not fraud −9.6, incidents the subject suffered −6.4, problems around the subject, caused by others −3.2; legitimacy credit long-running +10; no longer operating, so capped at 50; fact-check adjustments (−8) now shown as page reliability, not in the score. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -9.6 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -6.4 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -3.2 |
| Long-running | +10 |
| Sum | 56 |
- No longer operating, so capped at 50.
Score: 50/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
Pickle Finance was an Ethereum-based DeFi yield aggregator launched in September 2020 that suffered a critical smart contract exploit on November 21, 2020, resulting in the theft of approximately 19.76 million DAI (roughly $19.7 million) from its pDAI PickleJar. The exploit, known as the 'Evil Jar Attack,' combined three design flaws in unaudited contract code and led to a 50% collapse in the PICKLE token price, with hack proceeds later laundered through Tornado Cash. The protocol subsequently merged with Yearn Finance but never meaningfully recovered; it officially announced its shutdown in 2025 with the UI disabled on October 1, 2025.
Connected Entities
6 entities · 60 linked investigations- Pickle Finance→mentioned with→Uniswap(60%)
- Yearn Finance→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Pickle Finance→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Uniswap→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Cover Protocol→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Cover Protocol→mentioned with→Yearn Finance(80%)
- Pickle Finance→mentioned with→Yearn Finance(80%)
- Pickle Finance→mentioned with→Cover Protocol(80%)
Timeline(15 events)
September 2020
Pickle Finance launches on Ethereum as a yield aggregator offering Pickle Jars and Pickle Farms.
3 October 2020
MixBytes completes a security audit of Pickle Finance smart contracts (ControllerV3 scope).
20 October 2020
Haechi completes a security audit of Pickle Finance smart contracts (ControllerV3 scope).
23 October 2020
ControllerV4 and the swapExactJarForJar function are deployed to production without undergoing a security audit.
21 November 2020
Attacker exploits three chained vulnerabilities in ControllerV4 and drains 19,759,355 DAI from the pDAI PickleJar in the Evil Jar Attack. PICKLE token falls approximately 50%.
22 November 2020
Pickle Finance executes an emergency timelock transaction at 15:15 UTC to revoke the exploited proxy logic from the Controller. White-hat team secures remaining $50 million in assets. Official postmortem published.
24 November 2020
Yearn Finance announces merger with Pickle Finance, characterized as DeFi's first M&A deal, without a prior community governance vote from either protocol.
25 November 2020
PICKLE token surges to approximately $27 on merger announcement.
December 2020
Cover Protocol approves Pickle Finance insurance claim; 282,035 DAI paid out, covering less than 2% of total losses.
December 2020
Developers 0xPenguin and BigBrainBriner depart Pickle Finance.
9 February 2021
PICKLE token reaches all-time high of approximately $34.35 before entering a sustained decline.
2021
Stolen funds from the November 2020 exploit are laundered through Tornado Cash in batches of 100 ETH; total of 1,800 ETH moved through the mixer according to PeckShieldAlert.
2022
Bear market conditions sharply reduce Pickle Finance TVL and user activity; the protocol struggles to compete in the saturated yield aggregator market.
10 June 2025
Pickle Finance takes a snapshot of PICKLE and DILL holders for treasury distribution eligibility (minimum 300 PICKLE required).
October 2025
Pickle Finance UI is disabled. Protocol officially sunsets after approximately five years. Remaining 170,280 USDC treasury distributed to eligible token holders.
Decision Log
- slot 457467479 · hash 6hxDZHNnKxJ6YMGwCQ5iCw285Ft6EZcwWSLxnbMgemrV
- slot 455358604 · hash 6tiKUPHARBRP4MNyfBeX3iDqYjGtcN2KFQk4UUPoih6Y
- slot 443561823 · hash 8eS5SHjcgNyw1WqKAr9imkuHWNi9n8kdrMGLBjbLebrY
- slot 443561821 · hash 4sT1etCPEs3F3k1QFifCdxAu1WFZyqZDB33P7ScWYPwR
- slot 422206395 · hash EWLoPrSpYZSUdHTwo19Si4WRmX7cMwRBhc3B2gptBCL6
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (5 decisions). 18 of 26 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:59 AM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:40:15 PM
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