Incident Overview
WoToken scam took in roughly $1 billion worth of crypto at current prices from over 715,000 victims.
WoToken purported to create profits for users by deploying algorithmic trading bots and paying affiliates referral commissions. The stated proprietary trading program, however, did not exist, as with other MLM frauds.
One of the scam's key operators is allegedly tied to PlusToken, a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that is thought to have influenced the price trajectory of Bitcoin (BTC) many times during 2019.
WoToken amassed 46,000 BTC, over 2 million Ethereum (ETH), 292,000 Litecoin (LTC), 56,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and 684,00 Eos (EOS) – totaling approximately $1 billion at the time of the arrest.
WoToken was operational from July 2018 until October 2019.
Incident Report
Protocol Information
Market Context at Time of Hack
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to WoToken, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 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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