How much was lost in the Evolved Apes hack?

The Evolved Apes hack resulted in $2.3M in losses on October 06, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the Evolved Apes exploit?

The Evolved Apes 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.

Evolved Apes Hack

TOTAL LOST $2.3M

Medium Oct 06, 2021 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2021 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #614 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

A week after the project launch, the anonymous developer is known as Evil Ape vanished along with the project’s official Twitter account and website.

Funds gathered on the NFT sale:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x233a65b0…da1642#internaltx

798.07 ETH was distributed between external wallets at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x573da368…f803e9

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa966f3a3…957be5

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Evolved Apes

Date of Incident October 06, 2021

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification NFT

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token EVA

Official Website www.evolvedapes.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @evolvedapesnft

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Collectibles & NFTs Gaming Metaverse PolkaFoundry Red Kite Play To Earn Ferrum Network BNB Chain Ecosystem

Protocol Links

Discord

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 Evolved Apes's contract logic - root cause: nft

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 Evolved Apes, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dyem/investors-spent-millions-…

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause NFT
Year 2021

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