OpenZeppelin’s Manuel Aráoz advises exiting DeFi, calls it unsafe
Crypto security concerns have intensified after OpenZeppelin co-founder Manuel Aráoz said he has advised friends and family to exit all decentralized finance positions, including exposure to major lending protocols.OpenZeppelin co-founder Manuel Aráoz said he has advised friends and family to exit all DeFi positions, including exposure to Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound.DeFi protocols lost nearly $630 million to hacks in April, with Drift and Kelp DAO accounting for most of the monthly losses.Total value locked across the DeFi market has fallen roughly 14% since mid April as exploit incidents continued into May. In a post published Tuesday on X, Aráoz said he no longer considers “all of DeFi” safe, arguing that the balance between attackers and defenders has tilted too far in favor of hackers. Even lower-risk positions tied to established protocols such as Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound were included in his warning. PSA: I now consider *all* of DeFi unsafe. Coding agents are superhuman at finding vulnerabilities, and smart contract security is too asymmetric: defenders need to fix every bug while attackers need just one exploit to steal funds. — Manuel Aráoz (@maraoz) May 26, 2026 Describing the current state of smart contract security, Aráoz said coding agents have become “superhuman at finding vulnerabilities,” while









