Whitehat Developer Unlocks $2 Million Stuck in a 2016 Ethereum ICO Contract for Nine Years
The whitehat recovery let 48 original investors claim trapped ether, and two have already retrieved 96.5 ETH, he said.
- A security researcher working with the HongCoin team unlocked about $2 million in Ethereum trapped for nine years, executing a coordinated whitehat recovery of funds from a failed 2016 ICO smart contract.
- The 2016 HongCoin ICO failed to meet funding goals, and a bug in the smart contract's refund function prevented investors from retrieving their ether automatically.
- Exploiting an unpatched integer-overflow flaw in the contract's admin function, the researcher coordinated with HongCoin's multisig wallet to sign 41 transactions, freeing roughly 1,000 ETH for 48 eligible investors.
- Two investors have already retrieved a combined 96.5 ETH worth roughly $193,000 since Sunday, while another seven holders qualified for direct refunds without requiring the technical workaround.
- This whitehat recovery, the second publicized in eight days, stands in contrast to recent DeFi exploits; April alone saw roughly $293 million drained from Kelp DAO and other protocols.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Whitehat developer unlocks $2 million stuck in a 2016 Ethereum ICO contract for nine years
0xflorent, a security researcher, found an integer-overflow flaw in the HongCoin token sale contract that lets the team unlock funds for 48 original investors. It is the second such recovery he has publicized in eight days.
A developer discovered a flaw in the HongCoin ICO contract and coordinated with the team to return funds to 48 original investors. The article "$2 million unlocked from Ethereum contract trapped for nine years" was first published on CryptoNews - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cryptocurrency News.
Whitehat Team Recovers $2M in ETH From a 2016 ICO Contract After Nine Years
A security researcher known as 0xflorent successfully unlocked approximately 1,003.62 ETH, equivalent to around $2 million, that had been trapped for nine years in the smart contract of HongCoin, a failed 2016 Ethereum ICO. The recovery, classified as a whitehat operation, exploited an integer overflow vulnerability that the original developers had never patched. The HongCoin contract was designed to automatically refund investors’ ETH if fundra…
Failed Ethereum ICO from 2016 just unlocked 1,003 ETH by exploiting itself - Invest In Crypto News
A white-hat researcher’s recovery of 1,003.62 ETH from a failed 2016 Ethereum ICO has turned an old smart contract flaw into a reminder that Ethereum’s earliest technical decisions can remain live for nearly a decade. The researcher, known as 0xFlorent, said he unlocked the ETH from the HongCoin contract after the funds had been trapped for nine years. Using a June 1 Ethereum price of roughly $1,983, the recovered amount was worth about $1.99 mi…
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