Incident Overview
On November 3, 2024, MetaWin, a prominent online crypto casino, suffered a security breach that resulted in the loss of approximately $4 million.
The breach at MetaWin exploited the platform’s instant withdrawal mechanism, which was designed for seamless and rapid transactions. This "frictionless" system inadvertently allowed a hacker to bypass traditional security checks, gaining access to the casino’s Ethereum and Solana hot wallets. Hot wallets, which remain online for quick transaction processing, are inherently more vulnerable, and this became the critical entry point for the attack.
Upon detecting the intrusion, MetaWin swiftly disabled withdrawals to secure the system. However, the damage was already done, with over $4 million drained from the platform. The hacker’s method involved targeting addresses directly linked to the withdrawal system, using a sophisticated approach that leveraged over 115 addresses. Blockchain expert ZachXBT collaborated with MetaWin to trace the stolen assets, revealing that the hacker funneled the funds through KuCoin and HitBTC, platforms often utilized for obfuscating the origin of stolen funds.
Incident Report
Protocol Information
Market Context at Time of Hack
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Metawin, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2024).
- Verify all logic paths related to Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
- 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.
Free TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
Learn to Prevent the Next Metawin
The Metawin hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.