Euler Finance
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anchored·21p2H4…1B2xSummary
Euler Finance is an Ethereum-based non-custodial lending protocol founded in 2020 by Michael Bentley (PhD, Oxford) that pioneered permissionless lending for long-tail ERC-20 assets. On March 13, 2023, the protocol suffered a ~$197 million flash loan exploit — the largest DeFi hack of 2023 — caused by a missing health check in the donateToReserves() function. In an unusual outcome, the attacker, who communicated under the alias 'Jacob,' returned approximately $240 million in assets (including ETH price appreciation) over three weeks following on-chain negotiations, enabling full user restitution. The protocol relaunched as Euler V2 in September 2024 with a modular architecture, 45+ security audits, and subsequently grew TVL to over $1.5 billion by early 2025.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 10 more
Timeline(20 events)
September 2020
Euler Labs incorporated; development of permissionless DeFi lending protocol begins.
25 August 2021
Euler raises ~$8 million in Series A funding, with Paradigm as a lead investor.
May 2021
First audit engagements begin; Halborn, Solidified, and other firms begin reviewing Euler smart contracts.
7 June 2022
Euler raises $32 million Series B led by Haun Ventures; investors include FTX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Jane Street.
July 2022
Whitehat researcher Kankodu reports 'first depositor' bug via Immunefi bug bounty; awarded $50,000. Euler deploys fix introducing donateToReserves() function.
September 2022
WatchPug audit of donateToReserves() function conducted; missing solvency check not identified. Vulnerable code deployed on mainnet.
13 March 2023
Flash loan exploit drains ~$197 million from Euler Finance across stETH, USDC, WBTC, and DAI. Euler pauses vulnerable module same day. Lazarus Group wallet interaction flagged by on-chain analysts.
14 March 2023
Euler offers $1 million bounty for information on attacker identity. On-chain ultimatum demands return of 90% of funds within 24 hours.
18 March 2023
Attacker returns first tranche: 3,000 ETH (~$5.3 million). On-chain negotiations continue.
21 March 2023
Lazarus Group operatives allegedly attempt phishing attack against the Euler exploiter's wallet; investigators treat this as a false flag, not evidence of affiliation.
25 March 2023
Attacker returns 51,000 ETH (~$90 million) in major tranche.
28 March 2023
Attacker returns additional 7,000 ETH and $10 million DAI. On-chain apology sent by exploiter using alias 'Jacob.'
3 April 2023
Final tranche of stolen funds returned. Total recovered: ~$240 million (exceeding original $197 million due to ETH price appreciation).
12 April 2023
Euler opens user redemptions, allowing affected depositors to claim recovered funds. No net user losses recorded.
19 April 2023
Seraphim Czecker, Head of Risk at Euler Labs, publicly resigns approximately one month after the hack.
February 2024
Euler V2 architecture publicly announced; development and security audit program underway.
September 2024
Euler V2 launches on Ethereum mainnet following 45 audit engagements across 13 firms, a $1.25M Cantina code competition, and a $3.5M CTF challenge. TVL begins rapid growth from ~$4.5 million.
March 2025
Euler V2 TVL surpasses $1 billion, exceeding the V1 historical peak of $323 million. EUL token rises ~70% in Q1 2025.
12 January 2026
Co-founder and CEO Michael Bentley announces step-down from CEO role; Jonathan Han named incoming CEO.
19 April 2026
KelpDAO bridge exploit ($292 million). Euler proactively freezes rsETH-collateralized lending markets to limit protocol exposure.
Decision Log
- hash: 3VS5GwxUjeFxjCtUDZM9kTaohpDKedHWe96Gz5AQA6hm
- hash: G6ppdrs1sUNJgf8oGabFziNqo43jdZnmahkcuNoSvTzF
- hash: 7HhXRHU56n7HiFTDqkMCvCtL7ToAuPpSXR63ewg2aowP
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (3 events). 0 of 31 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/30/2026, 6:25:09 PM
last updated: 8/29/2026, 1:35:17 AM
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