How much was lost in the BitForex hack?

The BitForex hack resulted in $56.0M in losses on February 23, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the BitForex exploit?

The BitForex 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.

BitForex Hack

TOTAL LOST $56.0M

High #116 All-Time Feb 23, 2024 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2024 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #116 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

BitForex exchange exit scammed with suspicious outflows of approximately 56,500,000 USD across multiple blockchains.

Details of the Exploit

BitForex, a cryptocurrency exchange, shut down access to its platform after a suspicious outflow of approximately 56,500,000 USD across several blockchains. Users attempting to log in are blocked by CloudFlare's DDoS protection service. The exchange stopped processing withdrawals and has not been responding to customer support inquiries.

The outflows appear to be an exit scam rather than an external attack. The funds were received from multiple addresses in BitForex's hot wallets, most of the funds were on the Ethereum chain, in the TRB tokens, and remain in wallets as of Feb 29,2024.

Block Data Reference

Funds Holder as of Feb 29, 2024:

- Ethereum: https://etherscan.io/address/0xdCaCd7EB…1fC01F

- Bitcoin: https://blockstream.info/address/3DbbF7yxCR7ni94ANrRkfV12rJoxrmo1o2

- TRON: https://tronscan.org/#/address/TQcnqaU4NDTR86eA4FZneeKfJMiQi7i76o

Malicious Transactions:

Ethereum: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x1c81e61d…c08a99

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb1ef6176…544753

Bitcoin: https://blockstream.info/tx/47fcf20f582d6d8529be7e781940ecb8faf6357a897c4ec0b770cfa5df77d100

TRON: https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/5544ba78bf21106b0e740dadb4fa0269aa56d80668124513decef26d28280930

Incident Report

Protocol / Project BitForex

Date of Incident February 23, 2024

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification CeFi,Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Lending

Affected Token BF

Official Website www.bitforex.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @bitforexcom

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Mineable Masternodes BNB Chain Ecosystem

Protocol Links

GitHub Reddit

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 BitForex's contract logic - root cause: cefi,exchange (dex)

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

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $56.0M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to BitForex, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (February 2024).

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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CyversAlerts/status/1762107083590128125?s=20
02
Web Archive https://archive.ph/uYsUC

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

HIGH

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause CeFi,Exchange (DEX)
Year 2024

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