How much was lost in the ETHTrustFund hack?

The ETHTrustFund hack resulted in $2.2M in losses on July 16, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the ETHTrustFund exploit?

The ETHTrustFund 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.

ETHTrustFund Hack

TOTAL LOST $2.2M

Medium Jul 16, 2024 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2024 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #622 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

ETHTrustFund Rug Pull on July 16th, 2024: Over $2 Million Stolen

Details of the Exploit

On July 16th, 2024, the crypto project ETHTrustFund was exposed as a rug pull when the developer, known as "Peng," transferred over $2 million from the project's treasury to a new wallet. ETHTrustFund, a fork of the $OHM project, had been leveraging the hype surrounding the Base, the ETF, and meme culture to gather funds. After months of inactivity and ignoring communications, "Peng" finally moved all the treasury assets, signaling an exit scam.

The project's website has been taken down, though its documentation is still available online. The funds from the treasury have been observed moving through the RAILGUN privacy project, suggesting an effort to launder the money and hide the transaction trail.

Block Data Reference

Treasury (multi-sig):

https://basescan.org/address/0xbfdb66a6…b491c8

Funds moved here:

https://basescan.org/address/0x374f4bd3…3059ad

Railgun and Torando deposits:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x77fd5bba…5944c0

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xfabb1009…0fd0c2

Incident Report

Protocol / Project ETHTrustFund

Date of Incident July 16, 2024

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Other

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

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Official Website ethtf.io

Protocol Twitter/X @ETHTrustFund_

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

BNB Chain Ecosystem Tron20 Ecosystem

Protocol Links

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 ETHTrustFund'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 ETHTrustFund, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://www.chainabuse.com/report/4e3e0656-698b-4e09-a561-e470c53375e4
02
Source 2 https://x.com/0ctoshi/status/1815026461675335752

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Other
Year 2024

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