Don’t Make the Same Mistakes: Lessons from Past DeFi Exploits

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is growing like crazy, locking in billions of dollars’ worth of crypto. But with big money on the table, attackers are always lurking, ready to pounce on any weak spot. Let’s look back at some of the biggest DeFi exploits and see what they taught us. Think of it as a “lessons learned” guide—so we can all avoid getting burned next time.

1. The DAO Hack (2016)

What Happened:
The DAO was supposed to be a game-changing, decentralized venture fund on Ethereum. Instead, it became the scene of a massive hack. Attackers found a bug that let them repeatedly drain Ether from the contract before it updated its balance, walking away with about $60 million worth of ETH.

The Fallout:
This was a true crisis moment for Ethereum. It led to a controversial hard fork and split the community into two chains: Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Suddenly, everyone realized that the stakes were sky-high and that code vulnerabilities could literally change the course of an entire blockchain’s history.