How much was lost in the AlphaPo hack?

The AlphaPo hack resulted in $22.9M in losses on July 22, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the AlphaPo exploit?

The AlphaPo exploit utilized Access Control. Understanding this attack vector is critical for smart contract auditors and developers building secure DeFi protocols.

How can developers prevent similar smart contract attacks?

Preventing smart contract hacks requires a combination of secure coding practices, thorough security audits, and understanding common attack vectors like reentrancy, oracle manipulation, and access control flaws. Smart Contract Hacking (SCH) provides hands-on training to help developers and auditors identify and prevent vulnerabilities before deployment.

AlphaPo Hack

TOTAL LOST $22.9M

High Jul 22, 2023 Access Control

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #211 By amount stolen

Protocol Type SoFi Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

AlphaPo, a crypto payment platform, was compromised via private key, resulting in a loss of approximately $23M across Bitcoin, Tron, and Ethereum chains.

Details of the Exploit

AlphaPo, which processes payments for numerous gambling services, suffered an exploit involving their hot wallets in Bitcoin, Tron, and Ethereum. The root cause was a private key compromise. The stolen assets were swapped for 5,742 ETH and bridged to Avalanche through several addresses. On the Avalanche chain, the funds were swapped for BTC and bridged to the Bitcoin chain.

On the Tron chain, the funds were swapped for 118,482,405 TRX and then transferred through several addresses.

22,851,804 USD loss confirmed across Ethereum and Tron chains:

10,716,942 USD worth 5,742 ETH on Ethereum:

- 2,464.3 ETH

- 4,555,628 USDT

- 108,050 USDC

- 1,687 DAI

- 100,218,957 non-liquid FTN

- 430,080 non-liquid TFL

12,134,862 USD on Tron:

- 11,673,373 USDT

- 5,542,290 TRX

The estimated loss ranges from $23M to a potential $100M since funds lost on the Bitcoin chain are not revealed yet.

Block Data Reference

Attacker Addresses:

- https://etherscan.io/address/0x040a9665…580d17

- https://etherscan.io/address/0x6d2e8a20…e53c38

- https://etherscan.io/address/0x8dc4f02e…3805e8

- https://tronscan.org/#/address/TKSitnfTLVMRbJsF1i2UH5hNUeHLDrXDiY

- https://tronscan.org/#/address/TDoNAZHa7WxarUAFbQUhiijTGtd7EpbzRh

Funds Holder as of July 24, 2023:

- https://tronscan.org/#/address/TJF7mdFxDuHB4tb9hoyR4SCpKxk7gr23ym

USDT Drain Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x68139cda…55a7ce

ETH Drain Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xd77012e2…d1d064

TRX Drain Transaction:

https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/a7d8b7b3e9df0ac88298d415128b6b136e6b8ee09c285545ecfed6e0b03b83b4

USDT Drain Transaction:

https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/61600fc1e7ac37e7de8bd9f07eb50660f2ef5cb2e8968146869bd5f606221bf8

Bridging to Avalanche:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x072dbb01…189a1f

Bridging to Bitcoin:

https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x0cb7c5f3…fb90a9

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project AlphaPo

Date of Incident July 22, 2023

Attack Technique Access Control

Classification CeFi

Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2

Protocol Information

Protocol Type SoFi

Official Website alphapo.net/

Protocol Twitter/X @NewBitcoinCity

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Solana Ecosystem Pump Fun Ecosystem

Protocol Links

What the Attacker Needed to Succeed

Understanding the prerequisites for this type of attack helps auditors identify protocols that are most at risk and helps developers build better defenses.

Technical Knowledge Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority

Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts

On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization

Target Reconnaissance Identification of AlphaPo's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them

Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets

Obfuscation Plan A strategy to launder and move stolen funds - typically through mixers, cross-chain bridges, or decentralized DEX swaps to resist tracing

What Auditors Should Check

Could this have been caught in audit? Likely — with a thorough Access Control audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to AlphaPo, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 2023).

Verify all logic paths related to Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
Review privileged functions (owner, admin, governance) for potential abuse vectors - centralization risks should be documented and bounded with timelocks or multi-sigs

Master these auditing techniques with hands-on labs and real exploit scenarios in the Smart Contract Hacking course.

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Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1682946088746074119
02
Source 2 https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1683034275489382401
03
Web Archive https://archive.ph/vjjat

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

HIGH

Attack Vector Access Control
Root Cause CeFi
Year 2023

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