How much was lost in the BTER hack?

The BTER hack resulted in $1.8M in losses on February 15, 2015.

What attack technique was used in the BTER exploit?

The BTER 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.

BTER Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.8M

Medium Feb 15, 2015 Access Control

Affected Chain 2015 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #675 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exploit/Access control Target category

Incident Overview

Digital currency exchange BTER announced that it has lost 7,170 bitcoins, or roughly $1.75 million at press time, in an apparent hack on its cold wallet system.

In a statement posted to the China-based exchange's website, the company said that it had shut down its platform in the wake of the attack and that withdrawals for user balances "will be arranged later".

A separate post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo from BTER claimed that it was working with law enforcement officials on the matter.

The stolen funds were broadcast through the transaction below, according to the announcement, and the bitcoins appear to have been split into a number of separate wallets since the alleged intrusion:

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/f5b0363f03e1ed8bb812c135361ea93590c831ce9f13a3750be1b93575baccc6

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

Incident Report

Protocol / Project BTER

Date of Incident February 15, 2015

Attack Technique Access Control

Classification CeFi

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

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Access control

Official Website bter.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @btercom

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

BNB Chain Ecosystem

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 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 BTER'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 BTER, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (February 2015).

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://www.coindesk.com/markets/2015/02/15/bter-claims-175-mill…
02
Source 2 https://weibo.com/p/1001603810634063024170
03
Web Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20200520141718/http://bter.com/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Access Control
Root Cause CeFi
Year 2015

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