How much was lost in the DistX hack?

The DistX hack resulted in $198K in losses on December 14, 2020.

What attack technique was used in the DistX exploit?

The DistX 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.

DistX Hack

TOTAL LOST $198K

Low Dec 14, 2020 Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1307 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

The contract deployer was holding unfair distribution of the tokens to the following addresses:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x163016f5…775ec1

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x573466be…bd65ae

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa71c693d…5ab8f8

0xdf7:

- added the initial liquidity to the pair using funds from the presale:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x36c132ed…dc6d85

- funds for the initial liquidity were got from the external wallet which gathered them from the presale event:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x73df6020…b0fb0c

- the rest funds were transferred to the external wallet:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5bfed01a…2f2a8a

- the liquidity was removed by this address:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x2e1b4acf…4fe5cf

0x6fa:

- sold tokens in multiple transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x430e21ad…a72e20

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xcfd6b9c5…2abcdd

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x1b55571c…1ab129

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4eabcaa1…7342a6

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x02fca546…fdce7e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x9d2c7599…058c96

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x52774006…b4048a

0xc6b:

- collected funds and distributed tokens (presale)

Incident Report

Protocol / Project DistX

Date of Incident December 14, 2020

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Other

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token DISTX

Official Website distx.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @distxio

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 DistX'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? Hard to catch — private key / OpSec failures are outside smart contract audit scope

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

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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://cryptoslate.com/another-rug-pull-takes-place-taking-a-1-…
02
Web Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20200923072512/https://distx.io/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Other
Year 2020

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