Radiant Capital is shutting down its decentralized autonomous organization after 18 months of trying to recover from a pair of devastating attacks. The protocol announced an orderly wind-down of DAO operations on June 1, 2026, saying no new capital arrived and user trust never returned.
Two exploits that broke the protocol
The DAO never recovered from an October 2024 exploit that drained more than $50 million. Attackers compromised private keys tied to multi-sig wallets, taking bitcoin, ether, and other crypto from pools. That came after a flash loan attack in January 2024 that cost roughly 1,900 ETH. Radiant used its treasury to cover losses from the first hit, but that left operating reserves thin.
Strategic investors, allocators, and ecosystem grant providers all passed on injecting fresh capital. Revenue and user activity kept declining, and the team said it couldn't sustain operations.
What still works — and what doesn't
Smart contracts remain live and immutable on-chain. Users can withdraw funds, repay loans, close positions, claim rewards, and unlock DLP tokens. Borrowing across all Core and RIZv1 markets is disabled. The protocol has stopped minting new RDNT tokens and restricts treasury spending to essential tasks only.
The front-end and website will stay up through the end of the year. Social channels — Discord, Telegram, and X — remain active but with reduced support staff.
The token's long slide
RDNT's price fell 4.4% on the news to $0.001444. That's down 99.1% from the all-time high of $0.5853 in September 2022. The token was once a top-100 DeFi project by market cap.
Recovery efforts and a 'DeFi 3.0' pitch
A remediation portal is still open for victims of the October 2024 exploit. Security firm zeroShadow continues to work on tracking and recovering stolen funds. Any money recovered will go to affected users.
The team framed the closure as a step toward what they call 'DeFi 3.0' — where protocols are judged by how they fail, not by how they operate in good times. They emphasized containment design and pre-built recovery plans as the lessons from Radiant's collapse. Whether that framing persuades anyone remains an open question.
