How much was lost in the APE hack?

The APE hack resulted in $94K in losses on July 26, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the APE exploit?

The APE exploit utilized Rugpull. 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.

APE Hack

TOTAL LOST $94K

Low Jul 26, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1547 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

APE token was rugpulled by the scammer, removing liquidity worth 96,421 USD from UniSwap pool in three transactions.

Details of the Exploit

APE is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On Jul 26, 2022, the scammer executed an exit scam by performing a rugpull on the APE token project. They removed liquidity from the UniSwap pool in three separate transactions, resulting in a total loss of 96,421 USD, which is equivalent to 53.36 WETH.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xAa5408d9…EF1F11

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xF969Eb68…4EAc59

Liquidity Removal Transactions:

1. https://etherscan.io/tx/0x9903e0b2…8da951

2. https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc303750e…831b7c

3. https://etherscan.io/tx/0xfd9274e8…272f4b

Incident Report

Protocol / Project APE

Date of Incident July 26, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token APE

Official Website vapordex.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @_VaporFi

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Avalanche Ecosystem

Protocol Links

Discord

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 Deep understanding of rugpull and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in APE's contract logic - root cause: token

Execution Speed Precise transaction ordering and timing to exploit the vulnerability within a single atomic block

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? Hard to catch — private key / OpSec failures are outside smart contract audit scope

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to APE, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 2022).

Verify all logic paths related to Rugpull are guarded by proper access controls and input validation
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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Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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