Solana Neobank Avici Loses $650,000 in Exploit, Token Plunges 40%

More than $653,000 was taken from card collateral vaults at Avici, a Solana-based neobank whose own documentation stated only a user's wallet could move those funds.

The Avici (AVICI) token has dropped roughly 40%, trading at $0.24. The stolen amount represents nearly a fifth of its entire market capitalization.

What the Avici Exploit Broke

Avici offers a Visa credit card that is backed by USDC. Users lock the stablecoin in a smart contract, and spending draws it down. The card is issued by Third National, not Avici.

“Only user’s wallet can withdraw funds from escrow contract after deducting the spends,” the company’s documentation states, indicating who holds the keys.

On Friday, the vaults were drained regardless, with a live tracker showing $653,548 removed as of this writing.

Self-custody was meant to prevent anyone but the user from taking the funds. It did not eliminate every privileged path embedded in the program itself. That is where the money went.

On-chain researchers said the attacker submitted a crafted signature bundle, granted itself admin access to the escrow accounts, then withdrew. Avici has not confirmed that method.

more info on the ongoing @avici hack ⚠️

> drain started 2 hours ago (5PM UTC) and is still ACTIVE !!
> over $1M exploit confirmed so far
> over 9000 users affected so far
> exploiter wallet address: FVNFzqAny8spWdPmYw6RQ9TkYa29ueFFiqCFD1gQnCEj
> hacker transferred out over $1M… https://t.co/jG4iXbda1i pic.twitter.com/IHLmkPN10B

— inno (@inno_sol) August 28, 2026

Why This Is Not a Treasury Hack

Each customer has a separate escrow contract. That means the funds were taken account by account. There was no single pool to drain.

It points to a familiar pattern, unlike when a Solana governance attack took $20 million from a single BONK DAO treasury in one move.

Tokens linked to such events rarely recover quickly, which explains why AVICI lost nearly 40%. Similarly, a bridge exploit sent Midnight's token to an all-time low in July.

Avici has said only that it is aware of a problem affecting card balance withdrawals. No post-mortem has been released.

We’re aware of an issue affecting card balance withdrawals and are closely monitoring the situation.

We’re working directly with all relevant partners to resolve it and will share updates as soon as we have more information.

— Avici (@avici) August 28, 2026

The company has not said whether the remaining vaults are still accessible, or whether card settlement with Third National is impacted.