The decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing protocol Cream Finance once again suffered a hack that led to a loss of $130 million. The DeFi protocol operates on the Ethereum network but has been facing a series of hacks and the latest one happened to be the third attack.
The blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield Inc. identified the attack as a flash loan, resulting in the theft of mostly Cream tokens, CREAM.
Cream Finance witnessed two more attacks in the past. In February, a flash loan hack caused a loss of $37.5 million, which brought the price of CREAM down by 30% within an hour after the attack. The story continued to August when Cream Finance was exploited again, with hackers making over 418 million in Flexa Network’s native token AMP and around 1,300 Ethereum (ETH).
The latest hack caused the price of CREAM to crash by around 35% in less than two days. CREAM is currently trading at $102.10.
Cream Finance joins streak of DeFi attacks
Despite being hit several times by hackers, Cream Finance is not the biggest or only DeFi protocol facing a loss.
As TronWeekly reported, Poly Network, the famous interoperability DeFi protocol, also suffered from a similar attack leading to a loss of over $600 million worth of funds in August. Unfortunately, this was deemed the biggest DeFi hack in the history of the crypto world.
These recurring hacks are bringing voices calling intense attention to consumer protection in the DeFi industry. Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while talking at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, said that the DeFi space requires robust consumer protection strategies for healthy survival.
“There’s a lot of lending going on. There’s a lot of trading going on. And without protection, I fear that it’s going to end poorly.”
Gary Gensler, SEC chair
Gensler has always been very particular about user protection in the crypto world. He recently called out unregulated crypto markets and previously termed DeFi a “misnomer.”