What Are Flash Loans?

Flash Loans

Flash loans are a subset of smart contracts where uncollateralized loans are made to a buyer and re-paid in the same series of transactions. Flash loans represent essentially risk-free arbitrage opportunities; for example, if a cryptocurrency is being traded for $1 on one exchange and for $2 on another, a savvy trader can use smart contracts to take out a flash loan of $100 worth of the cryptocurrency on the first exchange, sell it for $200 on the second exchange, repay the loan, and pocket the extra $100 as profit as part of a single instantaneous transaction. Flash loans are usually risk-free for lenders as well; if there is no contract executed to return the amount loaned, the initial loan will never be made.