Crypto Gloss

Radiant Capital

Radiant Capital is an omnichain decentralized money market that uses LayerZero messaging to enable cross-chain borrowing — letting users deposit collateral on one chain and borrow assets on a different chain in a single operation. Built primarily on Arbitrum and BNB Chain, Radiant reached peak TVL of over $300M in 2023 by offering high RDNT token emission rewards. The protocol suffered a devastating $50M hack in October 2024, when attackers compromised the hardware wallets of multiple Radiant multisig signers, gaining control of the protocol’s admin functions and draining funds. Radiant has since worked to rebuild with enhanced security practices.

How It Works

Cross-Chain Lending via LayerZero:

  1. Deposit Collateral: User deposits USDC on Arbitrum (earns lending APY + RDNT emissions)
  2. Cross-Chain Borrow Message: User initiates a borrow on BNB Chain, citing the Arbitrum collateral
  3. LayerZero Message: Radiant sends a cross-chain message via LayerZero from BNB Chain to Arbitrum, verifying the collateral exists
  4. Funds Released: The borrowed asset is released on BNB Chain after the cross-chain verification confirms adequate collateral
  5. Unified Health Factor: All positions across chains contribute to a single health factor — if the aggregate position is undercollateralized, any chain’s position can be liquidated

RDNT Token Mechanics:

  • Distributed as emissions to lenders and borrowers
  • RDNT earned as rewards is locked as dLP (dynamic Liquidity Provider) — a Balancer 80/20 RDNT/WETH LP token
  • Users must lock dLP to unlock full RDNT emission rewards (prevents mercenary farming without commitment)
  • Locked dLP earns protocol fee revenue sharing

Markets Supported:

  • Major assets: ETH, WBTC, USDC, USDT, DAI, ARB, BNB
  • Borrowing and lending across Arbitrum, BSC, Ethereum, and Base

Key Features

Feature Detail
Cross-chain Deposit on one chain, borrow on another
Messaging layer LayerZero OFT + OFT messaging
Native token RDNT
dLP locking Required to receive full RDNT emissions
Health factor Unified across all chains
Liquidation Any chain can trigger if aggregate HF < 1

Supported Chains

  • Arbitrum (primary market; highest TVL)
  • BNB Chain (second market)
  • Ethereum Mainnet
  • Base

History

  • 2022: Radiant Capital V1 launched on Arbitrum — single-chain lending with RDNT incentives
  • 2023: Radiant V2 launched — LayerZero omnichain lending, dLP locking mechanics; peak TVL ~$300M
  • January 2024: $4.5M flash loan exploit on BSC via bad oracle pricing
  • October 2024: $50M exploit — attackers used sophisticated malware/hardware wallet compromise to take over multiple multisig signers, enabling malicious contract upgrades; funds drained from Arbitrum and BSC markets
  • Late 2024: Radiant begins recovery plan, enhanced multisig security measures, insurance fund discussions

Common Misconceptions

“The October 2024 hack was a smart contract bug.”

The October 2024 exploit was not a code vulnerability but an operational security failure. Attackers compromised the private keys/hardware wallets of multiple multisig signers via targeted malware, then used the compromised multisig to push a malicious contract upgrade. This is a hardware/OPSEC failure, not a protocol code bug.

“dLP locking is just a lockup for lockup’s sake.”

dLP uses an 80/20 RDNT/WETH Balancer LP as the locked asset — it has intrinsic DeFi value as an LP position and earns Balancer swap fees in addition to Radiant protocol revenues.

Criticisms

  • High emission model: Radiant’s early growth was largely driven by unsustainable RDNT emission rates; “real yield” without emissions was significantly lower than headline APY
  • Security failure: The October 2024 multisig compromise was preventable — critics argued that multisig key management practices (hardware wallets + real-time signing tools that users trust blindly) were insufficient for the level of funds controlled
  • Rebuild credibility: Post-October 2024, Radiant faces the challenge of rebuilding user trust while competing in an already crowded cross-chain lending market
  • LayerZero dependency: Cross-chain messaging adds complexity and latency, with all the trust assumptions of the LayerZero message verification model

Social Media Sentiment

Radiant was viewed positively during its growth phase in 2022-2023, frequently cited alongside GMX and Camelot as a core Arbitrum DeFi protocol. After the January 2024 hack, sentiment cautioned but recovery was partial. The October 2024 $50M exploit severely damaged community trust — Crypto Twitter reactions ranged from sympathy for the multisig signer victims to criticism of the security infrastructure. As of 2024, Radiant occupies a “wounded survivor” category — still operating but under significant scrutiny.

Last updated: 2026-04

Related Terms

Sources

  1. Radiant Capital V2 Documentation — docs.radiant.capital. Technical overview of cross-chain borrowing via LayerZero, dLP mechanics, and market parameters.
  1. Radiant October 2024 Hack Post-Mortem — Radiant Capital Blog (October 2024). Full incident report explaining how attacker compromised multiple hardware wallets via malware injection, resulting in malicious multisig transactions and $50M in user fund losses.
  1. “Omnichain Lending: LayerZero’s Role in Cross-Chain DeFi” — LayerZero Labs (2023). Technical description of how LayerZero OFT messaging enables cross-chain collateral verification and borrowing.
  1. Radiant V1 to V2 Architecture Migration — Radiant Forum (2023). Governance discussion and technical proposal for V2’s dLP locking system, cross-chain expansion, and emission schedule redesign.
  1. “DeFi Protocol Security: Multisig Best Practices” — Trail of Bits (2024). Security guidelines for protocol multisig key management, hardware wallet OPSEC, and signing verification practices.