In case of suspicion of exploitation, Kinto token crashes to record low

Kinto(K)’s local token is a modular decentralized exchange (DEX), which exploded nearly 92% in 24 hours after the project confirmed chain utilization related to its casing deployment.

The price of K hit $0.5114 in its all-time low on July 10, sparking widespread panic, allegations of mismanagement and claims of “carpet pull” in the crypto community.

Investors unlock floods or develop?

The official Kinto X account confirmed the incident, noting:

“A vulnerability occurred on the Kinto network that affected the $K token deployment in arbitration.”

The team assured users that funds in Kinto’s wallets and bridge libraries remain secure and that security companies SEAL 911, Hypernative, Venn and Zeroshadow are underway for investigations.

Despite the immediate concern of exploitation, community detectives quickly highlighted another potential catalyst: the July 1 token unlock released 73.6% or 1.86 million investor tokens, doubled the revolving supply. As X user Yuujiro pointed out, investors may buy for around $10, creating huge selling pressure.

Analyst Humzytrades quantified this and noted that the K mark, worth at least $15 million, was unlocked at the end of June, accusing early investors of timing it with bullish markets.

“Guess they waited for the market to turn green and then abandoned it!”

This sudden doubled in available supply, coupled with the so-called vulnerability announcement, created a perfect panic sales storm, where within hours K fell from $8.12 to under $1, and the brief rebound was quickly eliminated.

One user, Ichiro Kenz, tracked chaotic price fluctuations in real time:

He posted on X: “I saw the price jump to 3.33 – 46.95%, and then returned 0.782 – 87.55%. I don’t know who is playing this.”

At the time of writing, the token has been eliminated, with 91.9% of its value reaching $0.5114. The massacres are also spread across all timelines, with K down 85.3% in three months, 91.0% in the past 30 days and 85.8% in the last week.

Amid the chaos, it sold nearly $2.8 million in trading, while its market cap evaporated to just $925,886.

Consequences and safety issues

After news of alleged violations, the mood became sour, Humzytrades and Implate 0 Xpain announced “Kinto-scared” and marked it as a “scam”.

They are not alone, the fire spread to other users, and one of them lamented: “In a market where every dog ​​is green, more than 70% of people…I have the worst investment ever.”

Trader Dan The man imposed an accountability on the team: “We asked the Kinto team to provide a detailed explanation immediately.” Others responded to his frustration, citing poor communication and lack of contingency plans.

The collapse also landed in the volatile security landscape. According to the July 5 certification report, Crypto Projects lost at least $620 million in the second quarter of 2025, although it has recovered $181 million. The study identified code vulnerabilities and wallet exploitation as the two biggest security issues that plague the industry, and Ethereum-based ecosystems such as arbitration proved particularly vulnerable.