$18 Million Heist: Ostium Oracle Attack Exposes Vulnerability in DeFi

DeFi protocol Ostium suffered an oracle attack on Wednesday, losing around $18 million in USDC due to compromised signer key.

The attackers manipulated the exchange's price feed by submitting falsified future-dated price reports through a registered PriceUpKeep forwarder, triggering a multi-million payout from Ostium's liquidity vault.

Ostium operates as a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Arbitrum, offering perpetual futures tied to real-world assets and holding approximately $63 million in total value locked at the time of the attack.

The exploit drained nearly one-third of the protocol's liquidity, prompting Ostium to pause all trading while it investigates the incident.