DeFi Fixed-Rate Lender Term Finance Hit by Governance Exploit, $8.5M Drained
AI Market Summary
Term Finance suffered a governance attack with estimated losses of ~$8.5M, draining ~2,843 ETH and USDC later swapped to DAI, equating to ~68% of the vault TVL. While Yearn said core Yearn V3 vaults were unaffected and the issue stemmed from Term's custom governance, the event reinforces smart-contract and governance-risk premiums across DeFi, likely pressuring risk appetite and liquidity around affected vault strategies.
Impact level
● Medium
Affected assets
ETH/USDT+1.59%
AI Insight · ETH/USDTAI Insight
▼ Bearish
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Term Finance, a DeFi fixed-rate lending protocol, suffered a governance-related attack on Aug. 24 that impacted its treasury, according to BlockBeats. Blockchain security firms PeckShield and CertiK put the estimated loss at about $8.5 million.
The attacker is believed to have moved roughly 2,843 ETH and $1.68 million in USDC, then swapped the USDC into DAI.
The incident involved Term Strategy Vaults built on the Yearn V3 architecture. Yearn said the issue was not in Yearn's standard vault code: it traced the vulnerability to a custom governance mechanism Term deployed outside the vaults, adding that typical Yearn vaults were unaffected.
Term vault governance actions were designed to include a seven-day timelock and an LP veto vote. Those safeguards failed to stop the exploit.
Before the attack, the Term Vault's TVL stood at about $12.45 million, meaning the loss represents roughly 68% of total vault TVL. Term Labs said it is investigating the precise attack vector.
