What Is the Economic Incentive for an Attacker to Perform a 51% Attack?

The primary incentive is to profit through double-spending. The attacker deposits a large sum of the target coin on an exchange, trades it for a more liquid asset like Bitcoin or stablecoins, and then uses their mining power to reverse the original deposit transaction on the blockchain.

This allows them to withdraw the liquid asset while keeping their original coins, netting a significant profit minus the cost of renting the hash power.