How much was lost in the MEMEPAD hack?

The MEMEPAD hack resulted in $80K in losses on October 30, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the MEMEPAD exploit?

The MEMEPAD 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.

MEMEPAD Hack

TOTAL LOST $80K

Low Oct 30, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1597 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

MEMEPAD fake token was rugpulled by selling 4,854,740,126,240,000 tokens, depleting the liquidity pool and causing a loss of 80,372 USD.

Details of the Exploit

MEMEPAD is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On Oct 30, 2023, the scammer minted a significantly larger number of tokens and then rug pulled by selling 4,854,740,126,240,000 MEMEPAD, completely depleting the liquidity pool. The stolen funds are still held in the scammer's address as 44.83 WETH, which is worth approximately 80,372 USD.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x0E629446…42614b

Scammer Address:

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

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc57aed7c…a866bb

Funds Holder as of Oct 30:

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

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MEMEPAD

Date of Incident October 30, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token MEMEPAD

Official Website memepad.co/

Protocol Twitter/X @MemePadlaunch

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Launchpad Exnetwork Capital Portfolio Arbitrum Ecosystem BNB Chain 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 MEMEPAD'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 MEMEPAD, 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/1718885563321962634

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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