How much was lost in the PopcornSwap hack?

The PopcornSwap hack resulted in $2.2M in losses on January 28, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the PopcornSwap exploit?

The PopcornSwap 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.

PopcornSwap Hack

TOTAL LOST $2.2M

Medium Jan 28, 2021 Rugpull binance

Affected Chain binance Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #621 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

The address behind the exit scam:

https://www.bscscan.com/address/0xFd6042Df…933c55

This address, marked as Phishing, got an unlimited allowance for transferring users' LP tokens from the Master Chef contract. The phishing address has withdrawn LP tokens onto his wallet by calling transferFrom() function into the Master Chef contract at:

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0xe214c0f7…69cfb3

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x4bdb3728…cecbb5

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0xe7f51685…225803

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x4f7685b0…4db465

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0xaa277c44…c05394

The liquidity was removed multiple times by the Phishing address at:

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0xa4593c08…d6634f

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x6659c115…c3b7e1

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x6c09b231…f62a87

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x9c218c10…c2df74

https://www.bscscan.com/tx/0x24f8004e…366ddd

Stolen funds are still holding on to the Phishing address.

Technical Root Cause

Unlimited allowance

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Incident Report

Protocol / Project PopcornSwap

Date of Incident January 28, 2021

Affected Chain(s) binance

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token POPCORN

Official Website popcornswap.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @SwapPopcorn

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 binance smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in PopcornSwap's contract logic - root cause: 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? Hard to catch — private key / OpSec failures are outside smart contract audit scope

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

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

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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://www.bsc.news/post/popcornswap-liquidity-siphon-rugpull
02
Web Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210128112035/https://popcornswap.com/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Exchange (DEX)
Year 2021

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