Origin Protocol begins accepting compensation claims following $7M exploit

Origin Protocol, a DeFi stablecoin project, will begin accepting claims from users who were affected by a $7 million exploit that occurred back in November 2020.

According to a blog post from Origin on Jan. 20, the project announced it will be making good on a December promise to compensate more than 700 victims of a $7 million flash loan attack on the protocol’s Origin Dollar (OUSD).

In addition, Origin users who lost more than 1,000 OUSD can make a second transaction “to claim and stake OGN,” the protocol’s governance token. Though users who stake OGN will have their funds locked for the next 365 days, they can reportedly expect to receive “interest in the form of additional OGN” at a rate of 25%.

Origin Protocol co-founder Josh Fraser told Cointelegraph that the project hopes “to build trust” among many of the platform's users by offering this compensation. The Origin exec said he still expects OUSD will become a way for the “average person to participate in DeFi.”

As part of its efforts to prevent similar flash loan attacks, Origin stated it had overhauled “every aspect” of its engineering and product development process to focus on security. The blog post stated that the project had recently completed multiple audits of Origin’s smart contracts and planned to offer users optional insurance coverage for yield farming.

“We’re thoroughly reviewing and learning from other exploits in the industry and confirming that our code is not subject to the same vulnerabilities,” said the post. “Our top priority is to make OUSD the safest way to earn highly competitive yields from DeFi.”

At time of publication, the largest claim made has been for 38,796 OUSD, with the smallest from a user asking to be compensated for roughly 10 OUSD. Origin will accept claims for OUSD and OGN until 4:35 UTC on April 20.