Hack history / 2020 / Hack or exploit
MakerDAO
Hack or exploit on Mar 12, 2020 · Stale Oracle Price
SOURCES AGREE ON DATE AND LOSS · 2 SOURCES
Lost
$8.3M
sources: $7.9M to $8.3M
Returned
none listed
as the sources state it
Rank
#340
among thefts by dollars lost
What happened
During the March 12 ETH crash (43% in one day), the Maker Medianizer oracle failed to update due to network congestion and high gas fees, leaving the system with stale prices. Liquidators exploited this by bidding zero DAI for collateral worth millions, acquiring 62K ETH for free. 36% of liquidations resulted in zero-bid auctions, causing a $6M DAI shortfall and $4M bad debt before governance intervention.
Details
- Date
- Mar 12, 2020
- Kind
- Hack or exploit
- Method
- Stale Oracle Price
- How in
- Price, oracle and governance
- Target
- DeFi protocol
- Chains
- Ethereum
Reported by
Related incidents
Cite this page
SwanBluechip, "MakerDAO hack, Mar 12, 2020: $8.3M lost", Crypto hack history, https://swan-hack-tracker.pages.dev/history/i/ht6f16327828/ (data as of 2026-10-31).