How much was lost in the Memecoin hack?

The Memecoin hack resulted in $79K in losses on October 30, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Memecoin exploit?

The Memecoin 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.

Memecoin Hack

TOTAL LOST $79K

Low Oct 30, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1604 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Farm Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

MEME token rugpull by scammer on Oct 30, 2023, depleting liquidity pool and causing a loss of 79,157 USD worth 43.67 WETH.

Details of the Exploit

MEME is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On Oct 30, 2023, the scammer (0xBd72D445…2B5871) performed an exit scam by selling 4,854,740,126,240,000 MEME tokens, completely depleting the liquidity pool. As of the same date, the stolen funds, worth 79,157 USD (43.67 WETH), are still in the scammer's address.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xBC0DD7FB…911288

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xBd72D445…2B5871

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x0bbbe26c…c3aa25

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Memecoin

Date of Incident October 30, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Farm

Affected Token MEME

Official Website www.memecoin.org/

Protocol Twitter/X @memecoin

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Collectibles & NFTs Memes Ethereum Ecosystem Binance Launchpool Binance Ecosystem Binance Listing

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 Memecoin'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 Memecoin, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2023).

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://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1718887498892636294?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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