How much was lost in the Solid Protocol hack?

The Solid Protocol hack resulted in $72K in losses on December 19, 2020.

What attack technique was used in the Solid Protocol exploit?

The Solid Protocol 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.

Solid Protocol Hack

TOTAL LOST $72K

Low Dec 19, 2020 Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1628 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Yield Target category

Incident Overview

On LinkedIn, the project team created accounts with fictitious images and identities.

The contract deployer distributed tokens in big amounts between external wallets at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x83dfa98a…0dd868

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x64797cdc…e548a4

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb8fa1eff…1212b0

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa20c511b…e7eb52

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xaf70f4b3…edafe2

One from the recipients added initial liquidity at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb875065e…7e2452

The other addresses started selling tokens in multiple transactions, for example:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc5e5f42d…6db17d

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x923bb84b…6ed103

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x494cf90d…2d263e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x040b78ab…18a1cf

The liquidity was removed by the external address at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x25c58351…4094b7

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xeb822c02…7daccb

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Solid Protocol

Date of Incident December 19, 2020

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Yield

Affected Token SOLID

Official Website Solv.finance/?chl=CMC

Protocol Twitter/X @solidprotocol

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Spartan Group BNB Chain Ecosystem Bitcoin Ecosystem BTCfi Binance Megadrop Binance Ecosystem Binance Listing Made in China

Protocol Links

GitHub 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 rugpull and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

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

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Solid Protocol'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 Solid Protocol, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (December 2020).

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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CaptainJackAPE/status/1340321995834052609
02
de.fi Analysis https://t.me/defiyield_ann/336

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Exchange (DEX)
Year 2020

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