How much was lost in the Ploutoz Finance hack?

The Ploutoz Finance hack resulted in $372K in losses on November 23, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the Ploutoz Finance exploit?

The Ploutoz Finance exploit utilized Flash Loan Attack. 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.

Ploutoz Finance Hack

TOTAL LOST $372K

Low Nov 23, 2021 Flash Loan Attack

Affected Chain 2021 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1086 By amount stolen

Auditors 3 Prior security audits

Incident Overview

The attacker's address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x2f618493…6b315e

The transaction behind the attack:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x7fe46c27…099457

The attacker:

- flash loaded 1,000,400 BUSD from PancakeSwap BNB/BUSD pair

- swapped 1,000,00 BUSD for 570,234 DOP tokens to push the price up

- swapped 400 BUSD for 8,841 DOP

- borrowed 86,921 BUSD, 85 CAKE, 18,000 DLOOY, 18 ETH, 1.69 BTCB, 89,000 USDT on Ploutoz Finance using pumped DOP as collateral

- reversed swap and repaid the flash loan.

The hack is made possible due to the price oracle manipulation of DOP.

Stolen funds were deposited into Tornado Cash mixer at:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x9f7d1936…81ec3d

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x3f7ca0eb…0e7abd

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x93b1f71d…bdcb04

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xfeeb8639…1bd118

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x0cd229b7…50effd

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x12462e50…32330d

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x01900c31…9bb34b

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x2dbc7bf0…c3b2fa

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x107de0ba…73c391

This is classified as a Flash Loans Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Ploutoz Finance

Date of Incident November 23, 2021

Attack Technique Flash Loan Attack

Classification Other

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Lending

Affected Token PTZ

Official Website www.ploutoz.finance/

Protocol Twitter/X @ploutozfinance/photo

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Asset Management Solana 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 flash loan attack and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Flash loan capital (borrowed atomically, zero upfront cost)

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Ploutoz Finance's contract logic - root cause: other

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 Flash Loan Attack vulnerabilities in code review

Audited by Audit Report 1, Audit Report 2, Audit Report 3 — still lost $372K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Ploutoz Finance, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2021).

Verify all logic paths related to Flash Loan Attack are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Flash Loans 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.

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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report
Audit Report 2 Report
Audit Report 3 Report

Related Attack Classes

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

See all Flash Loans Attacks examples →

Flash Loans Attacks

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/peckshield/status/1463113809111896065

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Flash Loan Attack
Root Cause Other
Year 2021

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