How much was lost in the Dipex hack?

The Dipex hack resulted in $17K in losses on January 09, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the Dipex exploit?

The Dipex 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.

Dipex Hack

TOTAL LOST $17K

Low Jan 09, 2021 Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1901 By amount stolen

Auditors 2 Prior security audits

Incident Overview

The contract deployer added initial liquidity at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x0277b502…b74edc

The contract deployer locked liquidity at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x6eead116…365254

The contract deployer invoked approveAndCall() function, which included an external wallet and addedValue amount as the input data:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5b6f330b…2462ff

This external wallet got an increase in token balance. The external wallet has sold tokens at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x954e5fbc…e0b4d4

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Dipex

Date of Incident January 09, 2021

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Derivatives

Affected Token DPX

Official Website dipex.site/

Protocol Twitter/X @DIPEXdex

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 ethereum smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Dipex's contract logic - root cause: 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, Audit Report 2 — still lost $17K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Dipex, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (January 2021).

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
Audit Report 2 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CaptainJackAPE/status/1347915049495498754
02
Web Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210108120920/https://dipex.site/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Exchange (DEX)
Year 2021

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