How much was lost in the MetaFinanceDAO hack?

The MetaFinanceDAO hack resulted in $380K in losses on October 12, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the MetaFinanceDAO exploit?

The MetaFinanceDAO 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.

MetaFinanceDAO Hack

TOTAL LOST $380K

Low Oct 12, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1080 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

MetaFinanceDAO was rugpulled by the token deployer-related address. The scammer drained the liquidity for 380,300 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

MetaFinanceDAO is a copycat token and can't be confused with other tokens with the same name and symbol. The token deployer sent $FD tokens to an EOA address, which drained 380,000 $USD worth of liquidity. The stolen funds were transferred to another EOA address.

Block Data Reference

Scammer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xd7dc8314…69d09b

Relation proof transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xbfb7968b…eaf051

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x79a102f7…aba897

Liquidity drain transactions:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x55d39832…197955?a=0xd7dc8314…69d09b

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MetaFinanceDAO

Date of Incident October 12, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token FD

Official Website betafinance.org/

Protocol Twitter/X @beta_finance

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Ethereum Ecosystem Binance Launchpad DeFiance Capital Portfolio Multicoin Capital Portfolio ParaFi Capital Spartan Group BNB Chain Ecosystem Binance Ecosystem

Protocol Links

GitHub 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 MetaFinanceDAO'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 MetaFinanceDAO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2022).

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/CertiKAlert/status/1580297492041633792

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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