Dev helps rescue $2 million locked in 2016 ICO contract for nine years with whitehat exploit

The developer told The Block that two of 48 eligible investors have already claimed 96.5 ETH that was unfrozen, worth nearly $200,000 at current prices....
Key takeaways
- 1Developer recovered $2 million in ETH locked in a 2016 ICO contract through a whitehat exploit after nine years.
- 2Two of 48 eligible investors claimed 96.5 ETH (~$200,000) from the unfrozen funds.
- 346 remaining investors can now access their previously inaccessible cryptocurrency holdings from the old contract.
Coins in this story
Why it matters
This recovery highlights risks of early smart contracts and demonstrates how technical expertise can unlock lost crypto assets. For Indian retail investors holding old ICO tokens, it shows potential pathways to recover stranded funds from problematic contracts.
Explore how Hack is shaping crypto markets — aggregated stories, leading coins, and weekly momentum.
Explore narrativeRelated stories

Cosmos-based Gravity Bridge drained of $5.4 million in suspected key compromise, researchers say
The attacker took USDC, ether, tether and PAYG tokens before laundering a portion through ChangeNow and Binance....

Bitcoin’s biggest quantum risk may not be wallet keys. An early investor fears something bigger
Bitcoin faces an overlooked quantum threat: adversaries are harvesting encrypted messages flowing between exchanges and institutions today, planning to decrypt them later with quantum computers. While industry focus remains on wallet keys, Google and Citibank are shifting priorities toward protecting authentication infrastructure. Ethereum has begun post-quantum migration, but Bitcoin lacks a coordinated defense strategy for wire-level signing systems.

A massive $1.26 billion sale of BlackRock’s IBIT was likely a rapid exit by a large investor
A $1.26 billion sale of BlackRock's IBIT shares likely represented a large investor's rapid exit from bitcoin exposure rather than an arbitrage trade, according to NYDIG analysis. The seller accepted a 2.3% discount, prioritizing speed over price maximization. The transaction reflects broader outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, with category assets declining from $107.75 billion to $94.17 billion in mid-May.