In 2020, there were a total of 16 hacking incidents in the DeFi sector, with a total stolen amount reaching $120 million.

In 2020, there were approximately 16 hacking incidents in the DeFi sector, with total losses exceeding $120 million. The main causes of these hacks were code vulnerabilities in the protocols and oracle exploits. Additionally, around 10 of the attacks were carried out using flash loan attacks.

2020 DeFi Attack Incidents

This year has seen a flourishing development in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Starting from June, the total locked assets on DeFi platforms surged from $2 billion to $14 billion by the end of the year. However, as more assets are stored in contracts, hackers are increasingly motivated to launch attacks. Especially since DeFi is still in its early stages, even if the contract code has been audited, it does not guarantee the absence of composability vulnerabilities.

According to a report by The Block titled "The Block 2021 Digital Asset Outlook," there were a total of 15 DeFi attack incidents in 2020, with an additional recent Cover token minting vulnerability incident, totaling 16 incidents with a combined loss of over $120 million. Both new projects (Pickle.Finance with a loss of around $20 million) and older projects like bZx ($1.022 million) faced attacks this year, demonstrating the vulnerability of these platforms.The largest amount stolen was from Lendf.me, reaching $25 million, but the hacker returned all the funds afterward.

The report indicates that the main causes of most hacks were protocol code vulnerabilities and Oracle vulnerabilities. Additionally, about 10 incidents were carried out using flash loan attacks, including protocols like bZx ($1.022 million), Value DeFi ($7.4 million), Cheese Bank ($3.3 million), Akropolis ($2 million), OUSD ($7.7 million), and Harvest finance ($24 million) which all fell victim to flash loan attacks.