Hope Finance reported that a Nigerian scammer "claimed everything from genesis protocol."
Hope Finance, an Arbitrum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) project, has lost around $2 million worth of crypto in a recent scam.
On February 21st, Web3 security firm CertiK alerted the crypto community about a scam on Twitter by retweeting a Hope Finance message.
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The scammer stole funds hours after Hope Finance launched its services. The news was initially revealed by the DeFi project, which claimed that the scam was performed by a Nigerian national.
Under its tweet, Hope Finance answered several questions from community members, declaring that a suspected person “claimed everything from genesis protocol.”
Blockchain security firm, PeckShield, also investigated the matter and revealed that the scammer moved around 1,095 Ether (ETH) worth approximately $1.9 million to Tornado Cash mixer.
In the latest tweet, Hope Finance shared a guide on how customers could withdraw their staked liquidity using the emergency withdrawal tool.
At the time of writing, Hope Finance hasn’t shared any additional information about the scam. However, the team behind CertiK revealed that the scammer allegedly changed the details of Hope Finance's smart contract.
It appears that the scammer changed the TradingHelper contract which meant that when 0x4481 calls OpenTrade on the GenesisRewardPool the funds are transferred to the scammer.
It is worth noting that based on the tweet shared on February 13th, Hope Finance was audited by Cogintos. The DeFi project’s audit report revealed that Hope Finance had several "major" weaknesses. Cognitos noted that the DeFi project had issues with incorrect modifiers and reentrancy.
When asked about the audit, Cognitos' spokesperson revealed that the Hope Finance representative, who communicated with the audit firm, “has deleted his account.” On top of that, at the time of writing, neither the Hope Finance Discord account nor its official website was available.
Therefore, it is not surprising that several crypto community members believed it was not a scam but a rug pull.
