Incident Overview
While bitcoin was poorly performing in 2011, alternative cryptocurrencies boomed. The Moonco.in exchange tried to gain the maximum possible from this boom and then, suddenly, Mr. Moon disappeared with all the collected money.
Incident Report
Protocol Information
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 Moonco.in, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 2011).
- 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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Learn to Prevent the Next Moonco.in
The Moonco.in 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.