Rising Price Manipulation Attacks Increasingly Hurt Crypto Traders and Lenders

Key Takeaways

• Price manipulation attacks are accelerating, with 32 exploits already recorded in 2026.
• Illiquid tokens and vulnerable oracles are creating growing risks for crypto asset lending protocols.
• Even users who don’t hold manipulated tokens can suffer losses when attacks leave lending pools with bad debt.

These attacks occur when an attacker artificially pumps the price of an illiquid crypto asset, then uses it as collateral to borrow other assets from a lending protocol. As the price of the collateral crashes immediately, the attacker simply walks away with the borrowed hard asset, abandoning their now-worthless collateral without needing to repay the debt.

Two Weak Links

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said they’ve registered 32 of this type of price-manipulation exploit so far in 2026, more than in any previous year. These numbers have been growing for the third year in a row, while last year, “only” 12 such cases were recorded. According to the researchers, price manipulation now accounts for about one in eight hacks, up from one in 17 in 2022. However, the share of stolen value has remained relatively flat, suggesting that these attacks have possibly become cheaper and more repeatable, while the required capital is easily accessible via flash loans.