Around 40% of the “insurance fund”, intended to protect dYdX users from having to backstop other traders’ losing trades, was drained in what dYdX CEO described as “pretty clearly a targeted attack against dYdX”. An attacker manipulated the market for the Yearn Finance token, which is not normally heavily traded on dYdX, but which experienced a surge in trades around the attack. By taking advantage of flaws in dYdX’s risk management, the attacker was able to rack up big losses and then force the dYdX insurance fund to pay out.

Total loss estimated at $9,000,000.