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Term Finance Reports Estimated $8.5 Million Loss Following Governance Exploit

Term Finance Reports Estimated $8.5 Million Loss Following Governance Exploit

Term Finance has halted its Meta Vaults and removed their DAO governance privileges after the incident.

Written by Rahul Dhingra, Edited by Rohan Pal | Updated: 24 August 2026 19:25 IST

Term Finance Reports Estimated $8.5 Million Loss Following Governance Exploit

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The exploit affected Term Finance's strategy vaults, which use Yearn V3 infrastructure

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Highlights

Hacker allegedly exploited low governance participation to gain voting po
Term protocol and lending market remain intact, preliminary findings show
Yearn says its vaults cannot be attacked using the same method

The decentralised finance lending platform Term Finance suffered a loss of an estimated $8.5 million (roughly Rs. 81.3 crore) after a hacker attacked its system through the governance control of its strategy vaults, as stated by blockchain security companies. The hacker stole an estimated 2,843 Ether (ETH) worth $6.87 million (roughly Rs. 65.7 crore) and 1.68 million USDC, which was converted into 1.68 million DAI on Sunday, PeckShield reported. The blockchain security firm CertiK also made a similar estimate of a loss of approximately $8.5 million (roughly Rs. 81.3 crore).

Attacker Allegedly Gained Vault Control Through Low Governance Participation

The alleged loss was around 68 percent of the total amount of $12.45 million (roughly Rs. 119.2 crore) present in Term's vault product before the incident, which included almost all of its roughly $8.8 million (roughly Rs. 84.2 crore) of Ethereum holdings, as per the DefiLlama data. According to Term Labs, it has permanently halted all Term Meta Vaults and stripped them of their DAO governance privileges, which stopped new deposits but maintained withdrawal access. The Term protocol and its lending and borrowing market have remained intact, according to its preliminary findings during the investigation thus far.

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Defimon is an onchain monitoring platform that noted that the hacker easily gained control of a large number of governance tokens through the low participation rate and was able to pass proposals allowing him to take control over Term's vaults. Term itself hasn't clarified how the hacker managed to get the voting power. Yearn V3 infrastructure is used for the vaults. However, Yearn stated that the attack used a custom governance wrapper. Hence, the attack can't be used against Yearn vaults.

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Term stated that it is coordinating with external security experts on asset recovery and remediation. Term said that it would “explore paths to address” any shortfall. This comes in the wake of the oracle error in April 2025, which led to around 918 ETH in unintended liquidations. During that period, Term was able to recoup 556 ETH, cut its losses down to 362 ETH, and pay back affected users, as indicated in its postmortem. After this occurrence, Term promised third-party verification for major upgrades and increased governance transparency.

Last week, the MANTRA Chain network also paused its operations on August 21 while investigating an unspecified incident, halting transactions and stopping assets from being transferred in and out of the RWA-oriented Layer 1 blockchain network. Components that were affected include validators, public blockchain nodes, MANTRA Bridge migration processes, and the MANTRA-run Inter Blockchain Communication relays.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.

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Further reading: Crypto Scams, Crypto Frauds, Blockchain Security

Rahul Dhingra

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Rahul Dhingra is a crypto writer at Gadgets 360, where he covers the exciting world of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Defi and Web3. Before joining Gadgets 360, he worked as a content specialist for a European-based Crypto Exchange. Rahul loves storytelling, not just through the written word but also through the visual medium. Beyond his professional life, Rahul is a sports fanatic. Whether it’s cricket or football, his passion for the game is contagious. More

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