Audit log

Every state-changing event for Renzo Protocol: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-05-15 02:53:13Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
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   chain

   ●mainnet-betaslot 419,816,645

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   5ToXbf8XAfHY…ATMQdP7Bcopyexplorer ↗

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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"4b284321-bf69-460c-b1be-6eefc3b247c2","kind":"publish","page_slug":"renzo-protocol","published_at":"2026-05-15T02:53:13.300Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Renzo Protocol","sections":[{"content":"Renzo Protocol is a liquid restaking protocol built on EigenLayer, launched in 2023 by Lucas Kozinski, James Poole, and Kratik Lodha. The protocol issues ezETH, a liquid restaking token (LRT) representing staked ETH allocated to EigenLayer operators. At its peak, Renzo managed over $3 billion in total value locked. Founders include Lucas Kozinski (previously CSO/COO at TokenSoft, founder of Moonwell), James Poole (ex-CTO at TokenSoft), and Kratik Lodha as research and product lead. Renzo received investment from Binance Labs and launched the REZ governance token on Binance Launchpool on April 30, 2024.","heading":"Overview and Background","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"Renzo Protocol - IQ.wiki","type":"other","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/renzo-protocol"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Lucas Kozinski - IQ.wiki","type":"other","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/lucas-kozinski"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Renzo Protocol Founders - Protagonist X post","type":"social","url":"https://x.com/ProtagonistXYZ/status/1747325376144052493"}]},{"content":"On April 24, 2024, ezETH suffered a severe price depeg, falling from approximately $3,100 to a low of $688 on Uniswap — a decline of approximately 79% in under one hour. On CoinMarketCap aggregated pricing, the drop was less extreme but still reached approximately $2,642 before recovering. The depeg was triggered by mass selling following Renzo's announcement of REZ tokenomics on April 23, 2024, which revealed that only 5% of total REZ supply was allocated to the Season 1 community airdrop, with 2.5% of that going to Binance Launchpool participants who had staked for only seven days. Community participants who had deposited for four months received no proportional priority. Renzo's withdrawal restrictions, which prevented direct redemption of ezETH for the underlying ETH, forced users to sell ezETH on open markets. This thin liquidity environment amplified the price impact of mass exits, triggering a cascade of liquidations across DeFi lending platforms.","heading":"The April 2024 ezETH Depeg Event","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH falls as low as $700, leading to $56m in liquidations - DL News","type":"news","url":"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/renzos-ezeth-loses-ether-peg-drops-79-in-under-one-hour/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH depegs to $688 following end of airdrop farming window - CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/renzo-ezeth-depegs-688-airdrop"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Renzo Restaked ETH Suffers a Brief Crash on Uniswap - CoinDesk","type":"news","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/04/24/renzo-restaked-eth-suffers-a-brief-crash-on-uniswap"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Depeg of $3B restaking token ezETH causes over $60M in DeFi liquidations - Protos","type":"news","url":"https://protos.com/depeg-of-3b-restaking-token-ezeth-causes-over-60m-in-defi-liquidations/"}]},{"content":"The ezETH depeg caused cascading liquidations across multiple DeFi platforms, with total losses reported between $56 million and $65 million across more than 250 users. On Gearbox Protocol, 115 Credit Accounts were liquidated, with approximately 10,650 ezETH sold on the Balancer pool, representing approximately $33 million in assets. Gearbox's internal reserve fund automatically covered protocol losses of 25.77 ETH. On Morpho Protocol, 146 users were liquidated for approximately $23 million in assets, with $34,000 in protocol-level losses. The primary victim class was 'loopers' — traders who had borrowed ETH against ezETH collateral repeatedly to accumulate restaking points, anticipating a profitable airdrop. When the airdrop terms proved unfavorable, these leveraged positions were wiped out in the cascading price action. One individual trader lost approximately $90,000 on a $900,000 position. Opportunistically, on-chain trader czsamsunsb.eth purchased 4,221 ezETH for 4,099 ETH during the depeg, earning a profit of approximately 121.65 ETH upon price recovery.","heading":"Liquidation Cascade and User Losses","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH falls as low as $700, leading to $56m in liquidations - DL News","type":"news","url":"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/renzos-ezeth-loses-ether-peg-drops-79-in-under-one-hour/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Depeg of $3B restaking token ezETH causes over $60M in DeFi liquidations - Protos","type":"news","url":"https://protos.com/depeg-of-3b-restaking-token-ezeth-causes-over-60m-in-defi-liquidations/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH token depeg triggers liquidations across DeFi platforms - CryptoSlate","type":"news","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/renzos-ezeth-token-depeg-triggers-liquidations-across-defi-platforms/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Renzo Protocol rethinks strategy after $60M in liquidations - AMBCrypto","type":"news","url":"https://ambcrypto.com/renzo-protocol-rethinks-strategy-after-60m-in-liquidations/"}]},{"content":"At the center of the depeg was Renzo's REZ tokenomics announcement, which disclosed that only 5% of REZ supply was allocated to Season 1 community participants, with 2.5% going to Binance Launchpool stakers. The initial announcement included a pie chart that multiple outlets described as not drawn to scale, visually obscuring the true allocation breakdown. When corrected for proportional sizing, the chart revealed that over 60% of REZ supply was allocated to team, investors, and advisors (VC Investors at 31.56% with a 2-year lock-up, Main Collaborators at 20%, Foundation at 12.44%, with Community totaling 32% across all seasons). Community criticism was amplified by the Binance Launchpool timing structure: Launchpool participants could sell REZ on April 30, two days before Renzo Protocol's own Season 1 participants could claim their airdrop on May 2. This structural timing advantage for Binance and its users over Renzo's own depositors was widely characterized as preferential treatment. Following community backlash, Renzo increased the Season 1 airdrop allocation from 5% to 7%. The official Renzo team issued no immediate public statement during the depeg itself, according to DL News reporting.","heading":"Tokenomics Controversy and Alleged Misleading Disclosure","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH depegs 18.3% following REZ tokenomics announcement - The Block","type":"news","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/290709/renzos-ezeth-depegs-18-3-following-rez-tokenomics-announcement-on-binance"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo increases airdrop allocation slightly after community outrage - The Block","type":"news","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/290802/renzo-increases-airdrop-allocation-slightly-after-community-outrage-and-temporary-ezeth-depeg"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo team changes airdrop conditions amid community criticism - crypto.news","type":"news","url":"https://crypto.news/renzo-team-changes-airdrop-conditions-amid-community-criticism/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH Loses Peg Amid Controversial Airdrop - BeInCrypto","type":"news","url":"https://beincrypto.com/renzo-ezeth-depeg-airdrop-rez/"}]},{"content":"A Code4rena competitive audit of Renzo Protocol, conducted from April 30 to May 8, 2024, identified 22 unique vulnerabilities — 8 rated high severity and 14 rated medium severity. The audit was commissioned with $112,500 in USDC in prize pool. High-severity findings (H-01 through H-08) included: permanent locking of ETH withdrawals for contract wallet recipients due to use of the deprecated transfer() method forwarding only 2300 gas; an incorrect TVL calculation that artificially deflated TVL and inflated the ezETH mint rate; a reentrancy guard on OperatorDelegator.receive() that permanently blocked legitimate ETH redemptions from EigenLayer; zero-fee, zero-slippage deposit/withdrawal enabling MEV exploitation and frontrunning; rebasing token (stETH) handling that could cause insolvency during negative rebase events; cross-chain xezETH minting that did not maintain 1:1 parity with L1 ezETH; access control restrictions preventing ERC20 withdrawal buffer completion; and an off-by-one TVL index error causing incorrect token balance assessments. A subsequent mitigation review identified two additional high-severity issues introduced during remediation. These findings demonstrate that the audit occurred concurrent with or after the depeg event, meaning some of these vulnerabilities existed in production code during the incident.","heading":"Security Audit: Code4rena Findings","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Renzo Findings & Analysis Report - Code4rena","type":"other","url":"https://code4rena.com/reports/2024-04-renzo"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Renzo Mitigation Review Audit - Code4rena","type":"other","url":"https://code4rena.com/audits/2024-06-renzo-mitigation-review"}]},{"content":"Multiple phishing campaigns targeted Renzo Protocol users surrounding the airdrop period. Scam Sniffer identified phishing operations in which victims lost over $500,000 through malicious permit signature exploits, with attackers deploying fake Renzo airdrop claim pages. In July 2024, Renzo's official Discord server was compromised by scammers who posted phishing links promising rewards; the Renzo team acknowledged the breach. Additional fake websites were identified impersonating Renzo's REZ token allocation and ezEIGEN allocation pages, using wallet drainer tools activated upon 'Check Eligibility' interaction. These third-party attacks, while distinct from the protocol itself, created material harm to users in the Renzo ecosystem during a period of heightened vulnerability.","heading":"Phishing and Social Engineering Targeting Renzo Users","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo's ezETH token depeg triggers liquidations - CryptoSlate (Scam Sniffer reference)","type":"news","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/renzos-ezeth-token-depeg-triggers-liquidations-across-defi-platforms/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Renzo Discord Hacked by Scammers Promising Rewards - CryptoTimes","type":"news","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2024/07/22/renzo-discord-hacked-by-scammers-promising-rewards/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Renzo ezEIGEN Allocation Scam - PCRisk","type":"other","url":"https://www.pcrisk.com/removal-guides/31231-renzo-ezeigen-allocation-scam"}]},{"content":"As of 2025-2026, Renzo Protocol remains operational. After the depeg event, TVL declined substantially from the $3 billion+ peak, with DeFiLlama tracking approximately $217 million in TVL in more recent data, placing it behind competing liquid restaking protocols such as ether.fi and Kelp DAO. The protocol implemented a REZ buyback-and-burn program, executing monthly burns from protocol revenue. In 2025, Renzo launched compliant institutional vaults and expanded cross-chain to BNB Chain and Polygon. Founder Lucas Kozinski articulated a 'Yield Orchestration Layer' strategy for institutional capital in April 2026. A governance proposal to unlock investor tokens was published in the Renzo governance forum. The protocol continues to operate an Immunefi bug bounty program.","heading":"Current Protocol Status (2025–2026)","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo TVL - DeFiLlama","type":"onchain","url":"https://defillama.com/protocol/renzo"},{"credibility":2,"name":"REZ Buyback & Burn Program - Renzo Governance Forum","type":"official","url":"https://gov.renzoprotocol.com/t/rez-buyback-burn-program/251"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Renzo Protocol Bug Bounty - Immunefi","type":"official","url":"https://immunefi.com/bug-bounty/renzoprotocol/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Proposal to Unlock Investor Tokens - Renzo Governance Forum","type":"official","url":"https://gov.renzoprotocol.com/t/proposal-to-unlock-investor-tokens/272"}]}],"sources_used":[],"summary":"Renzo Protocol is an EigenLayer liquid restaking protocol that issues ezETH, a liquid restaking token (LRT) representing restaked ETH. In April 2024, ezETH suffered a severe depeg — falling from ~$3,100 to as low as $688 on Uniswap — triggered by a controversial REZ tokenomics announcement that allocated only 5% of tokens to the community airdrop while reserving over 60% for team, investors, and advisors, causing cascading liquidations exceeding $56 million across DeFi platforms. Eight high-severity vulnerabilities were identified in a concurrent Code4rena security audit, and the incident exposed structural risks including withdrawal restrictions that prevented users from redeeming ezETH directly for ETH.","timeline":[{"date":"2023-01","event":"Renzo Protocol founded by Lucas Kozinski, James Poole, and Kratik Lodha as an EigenLayer liquid restaking protocol.","source":"IQ.wiki / Protagonist X","source_url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/renzo-protocol"},{"date":"2024-04-23","event":"Renzo publishes REZ tokenomics announcement disclosing 5% community airdrop allocation, 2.5% to Binance Launchpool. A reportedly not-to-scale pie chart obscures that over 60% of REZ goes to team, investors, and advisors. Community backlash begins immediately.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/290709/renzos-ezeth-depegs-18-3-following-rez-tokenomics-announcement-on-binance"},{"date":"2024-04-24","event":"ezETH depegs sharply. Price falls from approximately $3,100 to a low of $688 on Uniswap — a 79% drop in under one hour. Cascading liquidations begin across Gearbox and Morpho protocols.","source":"DL News / CoinDesk / Protos","source_url":"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/renzos-ezeth-loses-ether-peg-drops-79-in-under-one-hour/"},{"date":"2024-04-24","event":"Gearbox Protocol liquidates 115 Credit Accounts totaling approximately 10,650 ezETH (~$33 million). Morpho Protocol liquidates 146 users for approximately $23 million. Combined losses exceed $56 million across 250+ users.","source":"DL News / Protos / CryptoSlate","source_url":"https://protos.com/depeg-of-3b-restaking-token-ezeth-causes-over-60m-in-defi-liquidations/"},{"date":"2024-04-28","event":"Renzo increases Season 1 airdrop allocation from 5% to 7% following community outrage. Team also adjusts airdrop claim date to April 30, one hour before Binance listing.","source":"The Block / crypto.news","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/290802/renzo-increases-airdrop-allocation-slightly-after-community-outrage-and-temporary-ezeth-depeg"},{"date":"2024-04-30","event":"REZ token launches on Binance. Binance Launchpool participants, who staked BNB or FDUSD from April 24–29, are able to sell REZ before Renzo Protocol's own Season 1 depositors can claim.","source":"Binance / The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/290413/binance-token-distribution-plan-renzo-governance-token-ez-list-april-30"},{"date":"2024-04-30","event":"Code4rena competitive audit of Renzo Protocol begins (runs through May 8, 2024). Audit identifies 8 high-severity and 14 medium-severity vulnerabilities.","source":"Code4rena","source_url":"https://code4rena.com/reports/2024-04-renzo"},{"date":"2024-07-22","event":"Renzo Protocol's official Discord server is compromised by scammers posting phishing links promising rewards.","source":"CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2024/07/22/renzo-discord-hacked-by-scammers-promising-rewards/"},{"date":"2025-11-05","event":"Renzo executes first REZ token buyback-and-burn, destroying over 114 million tokens. Monthly burns confirmed as ongoing program.","source":"Renzo Governance Forum","source_url":"https://gov.renzoprotocol.com/t/rez-buyback-burn-program/251"},{"date":"2026-04","event":"Founder Lucas Kozinski publishes 'Yield Orchestration Layer' vision for institutional capital deployment. Protocol TVL approximately $217 million, down significantly from $3B+ peak.","source":"CoinMarketCap AI / CryptoJournaal X","source_url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/cmc-ai/renzo/latest-updates/"}]},"v":1}

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