$2 Million in Ether Unlocked from a Nine-Year-Old Ethereum ICO Contract
- A security researcher known as Ethereum developer, unlocked approximately $2 million (1,003.62 ETH) that had been trapped in a HongCoin ICO contract since its launch in 2016.
- The original contract failed to refund investors due to a bug in its refund logic, which was exploited by the researcher through an integer-overflow vulnerability.
- Forty-eight original investors are now eligible to claim their funds, with two already retrieving a total of about $193,000 worth of ETH.
- The recovery required collaboration with HongCoin’s multisig wallet team, who signed off on the unlock transactions necessary for the release of funds.
- This marks the second successful recovery effort by the researcher within eight days, having previously returned over $40,000 in ETH from other inaccessible accounts.
This coordinated whitehat recovery highlights vulnerabilities within smart contracts and emphasizes the importance of thorough testing and updates to prevent such issues. The incident is particularly relevant as it occurs amidst a wave of DeFi exploits affecting various protocols.
In total, $2 million has been successfully reclaimed for investors from a contract that had been dormant for nine years, showcasing the potential for ethical hacking in cryptocurrency recovery efforts.
