Radiant Capital is a cross-chain lending protocol built on LayerZero's messaging infrastructure, allowing users to supply collateral on one chain and borrow on another. Built as a fork of Aave v2 with cross-chain messaging added, Radiant was the largest protocol on Arbitrum by TVL in late 2022 and early 2023, driven primarily by high RDNT token emissions to liquidity providers.
Cross-Chain Lending
Radiant's key differentiator is omnichain functionality via LayerZero. A user can deposit USDC on Ethereum, use it as collateral to borrow ETH on Arbitrum, and repay from BSC — all without bridging assets manually. This is achieved through LayerZero's message-passing, which updates collateral balances across chains atomically.
In practice, cross-chain borrowing adds latency and gas complexity compared to single-chain operations. Most users still use Radiant as a single-chain lending protocol, benefiting from its above-market RDNT yield incentives rather than the cross-chain features.
RDNT Tokenomics and Emissions
RDNT emissions to suppliers and borrowers created very high APYs in 2022-2023 — sometimes exceeding 50% on USDC deposits. This attracted mercenary capital: users borrowed assets, used them as collateral, and borrowed again recursively to maximize RDNT farming, inflating TVL figures. As RDNT emissions declined and the token price dropped, TVL fell substantially.
Security Incidents
Radiant suffered two significant exploits. In January 2024, a flash loan attack exploited a rounding error in Radiant's newly deployed USDC market on Arbitrum, draining $4.5M. In October 2024, a more serious attack compromised the protocol's Safe multisig through malware on developer machines, resulting in $50M in losses across BSC and Arbitrum markets. The latter incident prompted a full security overhaul and temporary market suspension.
Current State
Radiant v3 is under development with enhanced security measures, hardware wallet enforcement for all admin operations, and a revised tokenomics model reducing RDNT inflation. TVL has stabilized around $320M following recovery efforts.