How much was lost in the Coin Merge hack?

The Coin Merge hack resulted in $76K in losses on February 08, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Coin Merge exploit?

The Coin Merge 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.

Coin Merge Hack

TOTAL LOST $76K

Low Feb 08, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1614 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Fake Coin Merge (CMERGE) project was rugpulled by the deployer, removing liquidity worth 75,887 USD from UniSwap pool during an exit scam.

Details of the Exploit

Coin Merge (CMERGE) is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On Feb 08, 2023, the deployer performed an exit scam by removing the liquidity from the UniSwap pool in a single transaction. The scammer removed 45.37 WETH, which is equivalent to approximately 75,887 USD at current market rates.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x93Ec3124…99db6f

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xE990d297…76AB0d

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x969d2e42…592886

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Coin Merge

Date of Incident February 08, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token CMERGE

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 Coin Merge'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 Coin Merge, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (February 2023).

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 2023

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