How much was lost in the Nft Trader hack?

The Nft Trader hack resulted in $482K in losses on December 16, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Nft Trader exploit?

The Nft Trader exploit utilized Reentrancy. 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.

Nft Trader Hack

TOTAL LOST $482K

Low Dec 16, 2023 Reentrancy

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1020 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exploit/Reentrancy Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

NFT Trader platform exploited via reentrancy attack, resulting in the loss of NFTs and 481,888 USD worth 210.8 ETH.

Details of the Exploit

NFT Trader, a trading platform for NFTs, was exploited on Dec 16, 2023, through a reentrancy attack. The vulnerability was in the project's old smart contract, which had approvals of user funds. The attacker stole various NFTs, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and World of Women.

The APE tokens were swapped for ETH and then deposited into TornadoCash. The attacker communicated with the project via on-chain messages, expressing their willingness to return the stolen NFTs, which were eventually returned to the project. The total loss amounted to 481,888 USD worth 210.8 ETH.

Block Data Reference

Attacker Addresses:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x909F2159…478fda

https://etherscan.io/address/0xd717b85b…43cdf0

Malicious Contract Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xc446e0a1…4d6ebb

Malicious Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x18f21648…7d9c39

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x11bb6c85…13a3cc

Funds Draining Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x3d79e70d…f0526d

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xf31333bd…71112a

TornadoCash Deposit Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x7d64e9b4…a99222

On-chain Message from Attacker:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc2f91dba…8d9391

This is classified as a Reentrancy . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Nft Trader

Date of Incident December 16, 2023

Attack Technique Reentrancy

Classification NFT,Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Reentrancy

Official Website www.nfttrader.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @NftTrader

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

DeFi Ethereum Ecosystem Avalanche Ecosystem DAO Maker Poolz Finance Portfolio PolkaFoundry Red Kite BNB Chain Ecosystem

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 reentrancy 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 Nft Trader's contract logic - root cause: nft,exchange (dex)

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? Yes — skilled auditors routinely flag Reentrancy vulnerabilities in code review

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Nft Trader, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (December 2023).

Verify all logic paths related to Reentrancy are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Reentrancy attack class for patterns
Check that all state-changing functions follow the Checks-Effects-Interactions (CEI) pattern to prevent reentrancy and logic ordering bugs
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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Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Reentrancy examples →

Reentrancy

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/NftTrader/status/1736015091563438475
02
Web Archive https://archive.ph/wUm2p

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Reentrancy
Root Cause NFT,Exchange (DEX)
Year 2023

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