Inside the playbook of ‘recycled’ crypto founders
The sudden rise and fall of Dough Finance
In July 2024, Dough Finance, a Florida-based DeFi platform promising leveraged “looping” returns, fell prey to a flash-loan exploit that drained $2.5 million from user accounts. The exploit not only wiped out investor funds but also brought operations to a halt.
Chase Herro and Zak Folkman founded Dough Finance in 2024 in Florida. The platform attracted investors by offering high-risk DeFi strategies such as looping, a process where traders reuse borrowed crypto. Here’s how looping works:
- First, a trader deposits a crypto asset into a lending protocol. This deposit acts as collateral. Then the trader borrows another crypto asset, often a…
