BlocksInform
Potential users of a decentralized funding (challenge) project based on arbitrum have been left to their own devices as a result of a $2 million achievement.
The security firm web3 certik reported the incident on 21 February, after an announcement of the Twitter account hope finance informing users that they had been ripped off.
#CommunityAlert @hope_fin have announced the community has been scammed for ~$2m making this the largest #exitscam on Arbitrum in 2023.
$1.86m was transferred to @TornadoCash.
Hope_fin have posted steps for user's to withdraw their staked LPhttps://t.co/hJbFXiKujt
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 21, 2023
It is difficult to get details about the project. The platform's twitter account was launched in January 2023 and presented plans for an algorithmic stablecoin called $hope that dynamically adjusts its offer versus the price of eth.
Posts on the account allege that a Nigerian national had carried out the scam and had transferred more than $1.86 million to cash tornado shortly after the platform came into service on February. 20. A member of the CertiK team told Cointelegraph that the scammer had changed details of the smart contract which led to funds being drained from Hope Finance genesis protocol:
“It appears that the scammer changed the TradingHelper contract which meant that when 0x4481 calls OpenTrade on the GenesisRewardThe money goes to the fraudster."
According to a tweet on February 13, Hope Finance's smart deal was verified by an auditor in Cognitos. Cointelegraph reviewed the audit summary, which flagged two major contract function vulnerabilities.
It included a wrong modifier and the possibility of re-entry attacks. Despite the reporting of these vulnerabilities, cognitos found that the smart contract code successfully completed the audit.
As a result of the scam, hope finance shared information with users to remove cash from the protocol via an emergency removal feature.
Steps to withdraw your staked LP from the this fucking scam protocol
1. Go on this linkhttps://t.co/HjuvQyxbUX
2. connect your wallet
3. click on emergency withdraw
Enter 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002 pic.twitter.com/5RxtgKXgoo
— Hope Finance (,) (@Hope_fin) February 21, 2023
Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer 2 roll-up network that is aimed at enabling exponential scaling of smart contracts. Alongside Optimism, the two layer-2 protocols continue to handle an increasing amount of transactions within the Ethereum ecosystem.
