Axion Network Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.1M
Medium Other

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain 2020 Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #810 By amount stolen
Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

The exploiter:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x8b1deff8…bdbb5b

The transaction behind the exploit:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc2a4a113…d089b4

The exploiter:

- funded himself through Tornado Cash mixer

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x86f5bd90…d9f563

- purchased around ~700k HEX2T tokens from the Uniswap exchange

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x6b34b75a…ab4d14

- created an “empty” stake on the Staking contract of the Axion Network by invoking the stake function with a 0 amount and 1-day stake duration:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5e5e09cb…70e878

- invoked the deposit function of the NativeSwap contract

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xf2f74137…fbf875

- managed to mint around ~80 billion AXN tokens by utilizing the unstake function of the Axion Staking contract

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc2a4a113…d089b4

- sold tokens on the Uniswap

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5e05ea9a…d714ca

- distributed stolen funds between external addresses

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa2534bb9…b23956

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x98cd2e73…3d0143

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x8a65af76…b0215e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc6fa8993…cc1f50

- deposited funds into Tornado Cash mixer:

https://bloxy.info/txs/calls_from/0x8b1deff8…bdbb5b?signature_id=994162&smart_contract_address_bin=0x905b63ff…ec7601

- repeated several times.

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Axion Network
Date of Incident
Attack Technique Other
Classification Other
Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2 View Post-Mortem #3

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs
Affected Token AXN
Official Website axion.network/
Protocol Twitter/X @axion_network
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories
Media Platform AI & Big Data Distributed Computing Smart Contracts Video Storage Web3
Protocol Links
GitHub

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 other 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 Axion Network's contract logic - root cause: other
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? Likely — with a thorough Other audit checklist and test coverage
Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $1.1M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Axion Network, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2020).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Other 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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Security Audit History

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