Term Finance loses estimated $8.5M in vault governance exploit

Decentralized lending protocol Term Finance lost an estimated $8.5 million after an attacker exploited governance control of its strategy vaults, according to blockchain security firms. On Sunday, PeckShield said the attacker drained about 2,843 Ether (ETH), valued at $6.87 million at the time, and 1.68 million USDC, which was exchanged for approximately 1.68 million Dai (DAI). CertiK made a similar estimate, placing the total loss at around $8.5 million. The reported loss represented about 68% of the $12.45 million held in Term’s vault product before the attack, including nearly all of its approximately $8.8 million in Ethereum deposits, according to Defillama data. Term Labs said it had irreversibly shut down all Term Meta Vaults and revoked their DAO governance roles, permanently preventing further deposits while keeping withdrawals open. Based on its investigation so far, the company said the underlying Term protocol and its direct borrowing and lending markets were unaffected, though it was still verifying the scope. Cointelegraph was unable to reach Term Labs for comment. The company does not list a public press contact, and its direct messages on X were closed. Attacker alle...