Study: flash loan attackers shift from oracle manipulation to protocol logic exploits

A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Financial Crime tallied 72 flash loan attacks that drained $1.211 billion from DeFi platforms between February 2020 and July 2024. Logic exploits rose from 28% to 55% of flash loan losses, overtaking price-feed manipulation.

• 72 flash loan attacks stole $1.211 billion from DeFi between February 2020 and July 2024
• 254 successful DeFi attacks in the same window cost $6.568 billion, with flash loans behind 18.44% of losses
• Logic exploits grew from 28% to 55% of flash loan losses
• Four attack types accounted for over 81% of losses, including one $181 million governance attack