Stake.com Hack

TOTAL LOST $41.4M
High #146 All-Time Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other bsc ethereum polygon

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain bsc 3 chains affected
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #146 By amount stolen
Protocol Type Exploit/Other Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Stake.com's hot wallets were exploited on Sep 04, 2023, resulting in the loss of $41,408,903 across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon networks.

Details of the Exploit

Stake.com, a crypto gambling protocol, reported a compromise of its Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain hot wallets on Sep 04, 2023. The attacker compromised the private keys and drained various tokens, totaling $41,408,903 in losses. Stake.com reassured users that their funds were safe and that all other wallets remained operational.

The attacker accurately distributed the stolen funds across all affected chains, initially transferring assets from Stake.com's hot wallets to their main address, and then distributing them between several EOA addresses. The affected addresses still hold over $13 million worth of various tokens across the three chains.

Block Data Reference

- Ethereum

Attacker Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x3130662a…0bcd3c

Funds Holders as of Sep 07, 2023:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x94f1b9b6…d58e8a

https://etherscan.io/address/0xbda83686…df0c83

https://etherscan.io/address/0xba367350…4ff30e

https://etherscan.io/address/0x7d84d78b…48ab4e

Funds Draining Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x98610e0a…fad54e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4629b762…7efe7a

- Binance Smart Chain

Attacker Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x4464E910…61ec04

Funds Holders as of Sep 07, 2023:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xff29a52a…bf82e5

https://bscscan.com/address/0x0004A76E…28a0be

https://bscscan.com/address/0x95b66568…afb237

https://bscscan.com/address/0xbcedc4f3…1630aa

https://bscscan.com/address/0xe03a1ae4…afbd62

Funds Draining Transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xcc696992…ce97f0

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x232267ed…f0f37b

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x65ba9579…238e52

- Polygon

Attacker Address:

https://polygonscan.com/address/0xfe3F568d…c6C4E0

Funds Holders as of Sep 07, 2023:

https://polygonscan.com/address/0xa2621363…09685e

https://polygonscan.com/address/0xf835cc6c…a2d3dc

https://polygonscan.com/address/0xa2e89818…7a8032

https://polygonscan.com/address/0x32860a05…397ce2

Funds Draining Transactions:

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x30dab44e…5f4858

https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x630466d8…a4178a

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Stake.com
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) bsc ethereum polygon
Attack Technique Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other
Classification Infrastructure / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaverse / Other,Gaming / Metaver
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Other
Official Website stake.com/
Protocol Twitter/X @Stake
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Protocol Links
GitHub

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 Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority
Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts
On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization
Target Reconnaissance Identification of Stake.com's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them
Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets
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 Stake.com, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 2023).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control 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.

Free Trial

Related Attack Classes

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

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

Browse all hacks

These hacks used the same attack technique. Understanding the pattern helps prevent future exploits.

Phemex $85.0M
Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other
DAO Maker Vesting $7.0M
Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other
Coincheck $534M
Private Key Compromised (Unknown Method) / Other

Learn to Prevent the Next Stake.com

The Stake.com 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.

Start Free Trial Browse Attack Library
Recreate exploit patterns safely Free Trial