Hacks & Security
Bearish
Study finds flash loan attacks drained $1.211B from DeFi 2020 to 2024
Image: DecryptA new study co-authored by University of Winchester Professor Tim Hall and former SyntiFi risk analyst Remo Stieger found flash loan attacks drained $1.211 billion from decentralized finance platforms between February 2020 and July 2024. The researchers scanned 20.63 billion transactions across seven blockchains, identifying 72 flash loan attacks among 254 total successful DeFi exploits. Flash loan losses accounted for 18.44% of the $6.568 billion in total DeFi losses over the study period.
Key points
- Flash loan attacks drained $1.211 billion from DeFi between February 2020 and July 2024.
- 72 flash loan attacks were identified among 254 total successful DeFi attacks in the study.
Why it matters
The findings highlight that smart contract vulnerabilities pose real financial risk for DeFi users. The large transaction dataset also provides law enforcement with a systematic view of DeFi crime patterns.
Sources · 2 publishers
Crypto Briefing
Tier 2
Flash loan attacks drained $1.211 billion from DeFi, University of Winchester study finds
Coverage timeline
- First reported by Decrypt
- Confirmed by Crypto Briefing
- CryptoVideos brief published
How this brief was made. Our system found this event in 2 independent publications, summarised two complete reports with AI and checked every number above against the source text. Sources are linked in full. Not financial advice. Report an error
