DeFi Protocol Euler Finance Loses Over $177 Million in Hack, Marks 2023’s Biggest Cyber Ploy: Report

The hackers have stolen millions in the form of ETH, DAI, USDC, wBTC, and sETH tokens.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 13 March 2023 19:20 IST

DeFi Protocol Euler Finance Loses Over $177 Million in Hack, Marks 2023’s Biggest Cyber Ploy: Report

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Sora Shimazaki

The hacker(s) behind the incident have remained anonymous

Highlights

Euler Finance has acknowledged the hack
Euler Finance said it is handling the situation
Elaborate details on how the hack was implemented remain unclear

Euler Finance, a decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol that provides crypto lending services, was hacked on Monday, March 13. This hack attack is estimated to have drained at least $177.6 million (roughly Rs. 1,455 crore) from Euler Finance, as estimated by smart contract auditor BlockSec. Other blockchain research firms like Peckshield and Meta Seluth, on the other hand, estimate that the amount of the stolen funds could be as high as $195 million (roughly Rs. 1,603 crore). This incident marks the biggest crypto hack of 2023 so far.

The hacker(s), who remain unidentified, could presently have the stolen funds in ETH 96,833 making for $153 million (roughly Rs. 1,258 crore) in possession. The remaining amount is divided among Dai (DAI), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Staked Ether (sETH), and USD Coin (USDC) cryptocurrencies, BlockSEC said.

2/ The total loss in four attack transactions is around 177M USD.

see the link:https://t.co/ovUWiWlW2l pic.twitter.com/pT7euG2P9w
— BlockSec (@BlockSecTeam) March 13, 2023

Founded in London, UK, the protocol allows its users to deposit their crypto holdings with it and earn interests. It was launched in 2020 by fintech entrepreneurs Michael Bentley, Doug Hoyte, and Jack Prior.

Soon after BlockSec security firms sounded an alert regarding this hack attack, Euler Finance posted an update on the situation.

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We are aware and our team is currently working with security professionals and law enforcement. We will release further information as soon as we have it. https://t.co/bjm6xyYcxf
— Euler Labs (@eulerfinance) March 13, 2023

For now, elaborate details on this attack are awaited.

Meta Seluth, the crypto analytic firm tracking the hack has claimed that the attacker may have exploited a multichain bridge to transfer the funds from the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) to Ethereum in the attack that was launched and executed on Monday.

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Euler Finance @eulerfinance is being attacked. It seems the attack continues and the total loss exceeds 190 million USD already. Will update the details later.
Check the first attack tx:https://t.co/KPF6zzfTUW https://t.co/PCb3CT803D pic.twitter.com/LZQTTMhLkh
— MetaSleuth (@MetaSleuth) March 13, 2023

Euler Finance, as of now, has not officially revealed how the hack may have taken place.

DeFi protocols, that offer anonymity and autonomy to user to control their funds, are built on blockchain networks and are not controlled by any bank, broker, or intermediary.

Hackers who target DeFi protocols often identify vulnerabilities in the open-source nature of the platform's code to gain unauthorised access and process their criminal objectives. 2022 witnessed a plethora of hack attacks on DeFi protocols.

Hackers managed to steal as much as $3.8 billion (nearly Rs. 31,100 crore) from the crypto-dominated DeFi sector last year, a recent report by Chainalysis had said.

This year, meanwhile, had so far been relatively quieter in terms of recording massive crypto hacks.

In January this year, a total of 24 crypto exploits were recorded by Peckshield. These exploits amounted to $8.8 million (roughly Rs. 72 crore), which is significantly lesser than $120 million (roughly Rs. 980 crore) worth of crypto being reported lost in January 2022.

Losses incurred dur to crypto exploits dropped by 93 percent in January 2023, as compared to the same month last year, PeckShield had said in its February report which, however, changed today.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, DeFi, Hack, Euler Finance

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More