How much was lost in the Fake PIToken hack?

The Fake PIToken hack resulted in $490K in losses on May 14, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the Fake PIToken exploit?

The Fake PIToken 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.

Fake PIToken Hack

TOTAL LOST $490K

Low May 14, 2024 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2024 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1015 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

On May-14-2024 , the Fake PI Token token was rug pulled, resulting in losses of approximately $490k USD.

Details of the Exploit

On May 14th, 2024, 0x85A78 performed massive dumping via exactInputV2Swap function. In multiple transactions uni v2 pool with WMATIC was mostly drained. After that funds were dispersed and partially withdrawn to OKX hot wallets.

Block Data Reference

Scammer:

https://polygonscan.com/address/0x85a78cbe…e455fd

Example of OKX fundings:

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x52e5dd3f…973bbb

Dump txs:

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x26f791f6…fbac60

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x88db8da1…14d7b9

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0xf4325fbf…38f146

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x4a8ddb33…3ab79e

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0xb7b5a62d…886f4c

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Fake PIToken

Date of Incident May 14, 2024

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token PI

Official Website pipeflare.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @PipeFlare

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Collectibles & NFTs Gaming Polygon Ecosystem Play To Earn

Protocol Links

GitHub Discord Reddit

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 Fake PIToken'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 Fake PIToken, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 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://x.com/CertiKAlert/status/1790377918247358840

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2024

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