DeFi protocol, Deus Finance has recently been exploited with hackers siphoning off $13.4 million in crypto, blockchain security firm PeckShield alerted via Twitter in the early hours of Thursday. PeckShield noted that the amount lost may be larger.
According to findings by the security firm, the attack appears to be a flash loan exploit. The hackers manipulated the price oracle of the USDC/DEI pair, then used the manipulated price of collateral DEI to borrow and drain the pool.
The funds are currently being moved through Tornado Cash – an Ethereum mixer – to avoid traces.
A few hours after the incident, the Deus Finance team confirmed the hack, assuring that users’ funds are safe and that DEI peg has been restored.
The exploit negatively affected the price of DEUS, the protocol’s native token. DEUS is down by 6.50% in the last 24 hours and trading at $584.83 at the time of writing.
Similar Approach, Different Hacks
Unfortunately, this will be the second hack the protocol will be experiencing in under two months with both carried out via a similar approach.
Recall that Coinfomania reported in March that Deus Finance suffered a flash loan exploit with hackers draining over $3 million including 200,000 DAI ($200,000) and 1101.8 ETH from the platform.
DeFi Protocols Continues to Fall Victim
With DeFi protocols recording significant numbers and attracting investors, they have become a major target for criminals in recent times.
Earlier this month, DeFi protocol Inverse Finance was exploited with hackers stealing around $15 million.
Just recently, another protocol Beanstalk was also hacked for over $180 million via a flash loan attack.
A recent report by blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis revealed that 97% of all crypto stolen in the first three months of this year were taken from DeFi protocols, a 72% increase from 2021.
