Cardano Triumphs on Security Stage After $4.13M Hack

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A storm of chrome and speculation has blown through the crypto drawing rooms, where the Ethereum (ETH) gentlemen clash with Cardano (ADA) enthusiasts over security, and a hack draining exactly $4.13 million provides the spectacle. A Cardano DRep, known as “dori” on X, has taken up the rôle of the poised critic, detailing how the misfortune unfolded with all the propriety of a parliamentary report and a touch of nose-thumbing at Ethereum’s arrangements.

Ethereum MEV design blamed for $4.13 million exploit

According to dori, the malefactor exploited a vulnerability in Makinafi, a DeFi protocol on Ethereum. The plaintive claim is that Ethereum’s transaction-ordering design permitted MEV bots to profit from the hack before the rogue actor could even finish his first martini.

Remarkably, owing to Ethereum’s security architecture, the MEV bots shuffled the hack’s transaction order and reaped the lion’s share of the spoils. The result was a loss of about $4.13 million, shared between the desperado and his mechanical assistants, the latter having the true snout for profit.

This is absurd. a hacker exploited a vulnerability in @makinafi on $ETH, but MEV bots detected it first and captured most of the profit. In the end, Makinafi lost about $4.13M to the hacker and MEV bots.

It’s basically like a bank robbery where a government official shows up and…

– dori (@dori_coin) January 27, 2026

Dori declares in no uncertain terms that the root of the misadventure lay in Ethereum’s architecture, which seems to have a fondness for profit more than prudence. The analogy of a bank robber, followed by a government official who pockets the loot, is offered as a crisp verdict on the design as a whole, with the implication that the system applauds cleverness rather than safety.

In their words, a fair system would have stopped the hacker or recovered the funds rather than letting the money drift away to opportunists. Dori blames the lapse on the security framework that treats profit as a kind of garnish rather than a safeguard, a quip that would make even the Bank of England blush at its own philosophy.

By contrast, Cardano is hailed as the model of “fair financial infrastructure.” The eUTXO model-where the validity of a transaction is not seduced by the order of execution-means that shuffles do not yield profit opportunities, and sandwich attacks and MEV extraction are, if not impossible, at least notably less fashionable.

According to dori, Cardano would not have allowed such a misfortune to bloom on its chain. The implication is that Ethereum’s powerful actors profit from a hack, undermining its own vaunted neutrality and fairness as a financial system.

Makinafi funds recovery confirmed

It is worth noting that, despite the rhetoric, Makinafi subsequently recovered most of the stolen funds. A cooperative effort with MEV builders and validators produced a restitution plan for affected users, as if a committee of fastidious clerks had sorted out a frankly untidy drawing-room matter.

Paradoxically, while Cardano and Ethereum continue their polite, almost genteel contest for primacy, a Midnight developer in December 2025 hinted at a potential integration between the two ecosystems. The notion is that Ethereum and Cardano wallets could connect directly without the bother of switching ecosystems-a prospect that would delight the technocratic social butterflies and confound the sceptics who enjoy a good financial melodrama.

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2026-01-27 15:16