DeFi protocol Hope Finance hacked for $2M at launch

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hope Finance lost roughly $2 million worth of crypto assets on Feb. 20 to a hacker who “claimed everything from the genesis protocol.”

The DeFi protocol alleged that the hacker who scammed its community was a Nigerian named Ugwoke Pascal Chukwuebuka while sharing his photograph with a voter’s card.

Blockchain security firm Peckshield reported that the scammer transferred 1095 Ethereum (ETH) through Tornado Cash’s mixing protocol.

Hope Finance’s hacked contract is different from the one it audited

The smart contract exploited by the malicious player was different from the one Hope Finance audited, according to a spokesperson from its auditor Cognitos.

Cognitos said Hope Finance contracted it for a smart contract code review and security analysis.

The Cognitos spokesperson added that the Hope Finance team changed the contract multiple times, but each change was “rechecked by its engineer.”

Cognitos further added that its contact person with the Hope Finance team “has deleted his account.”

CryptoSlate could not reach the Hope Finance team at the time of writing. Invites to the project’s discord channel were invalid, and its official website was unreachable as of press time.

Community cries foul play

Crypto community members have alleged that Hope Finance was a rug pull.

A DeFi enthusiast Markuu said it was likely that the doxxed scammer did not take everyone’s money because there are paid services that allow people to dox themselves. Markuu added:

“Still can’t believe nobody on the team would have had never had a video chat with the ‘lead dev’.”

Another community member said the address on the ID “looks like a vacant lot” when checked via Google Maps.