Crypto Lender Euler Finance Falls Prey To $197 Million DeFi Flash Loan Attack

Summary:

• Euler Finance was drained of DAI tokens, staked Ether, USDC, and wrapped Bitcoin after a flash loan attack.
• On-chain security firms BlockSec and Peckshield said losses from the exploit were over $190 million in cryptocurrencies.
• The DeFi lender was unsure about who attacked its protocol at press time but Euler promised to update users as more information comes to light.

Approximately $197 million in crypto was stolen from Euler Finance after the decentralized finance lending protocol suffered a flash loan exploit on Monday around 4:50 am ET, on-chain security firms BlockSec and Peckshield confirmed.

The DeFi lender lost $136 million in staked Ether (stETH), $34 million in Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), roughly $19 million in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and some $8.7 million in Maker’s DAI stablecoin during the flash loan attack.

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Euler Finance was yet to identify the hacker or narrow down exactly how they deployed their flash loan attack. The decentralized lender contacted law enforcement and promised to publish more info on the incident as soon as possible, per reports.

BlockSec noted that the attack is tied to a deflation exploit involving the Multichain bridge from February. The exploiter bridged funds from Binance Smart Chain to Ethereum to launch the attack, BlockSec tweeted.

Following the exploit, Euler’s native token EUL dipped as much as 45% in price. The token traded around $3.40, down from $6.1 in the early hours of Monday.

DeFi Assets Stolen In A Flash

Flash loan attacks are common in the DeFi space as hackers often use this method to exploit loopholes in the smart contract codes deployed by protocols. During such crypto hacks, the attacker borrows a massive amount of assets without posting sufficient collateral, or any collateral in some cases.

After, the attacker will drain the borrowed funds from the protocol and complete the exploit. Flash loan attacks also has a drawback since the exploiter must quickly repay the loan or suffer significant losses.

Euler Finance Joins Exploited DeFi Protocols

Euler Finance was the latest DeFi protocol rocked by an exploit months after the decentralized ecosystem had its worst month of attacks in October 2022. Reports said over $3 billion was stolen from decentralized projects.