- A security researcher helped unlock roughly 1,003 ETH trapped since a 2016 ICO.
- The funds belonged to investors in the failed HongCoin token sale.
- An old smart contract bug prevented refunds for nearly nine years.
- Forty-eight investors can now reclaim their previously inaccessible ETH.
Decade-Old Ethereum Funds Finally Unlocked
A security researcher known as Florent has helped recover approximately 1,003 ETH, worth around $2 million, that had been trapped inside a smart contract from the 2016 HongCoin ICO.
HongCoin was an early Ethereum fundraising project that promised automatic refunds if its fundraising target was not reached. While the refund mechanism worked for some investors, a bug in the contract prevented larger holders from reclaiming their funds. As years passed, hundreds of ETH remained permanently locked inside the contract.
Florent discovered the issue while researching older contracts holding significant amounts of dormant assets. According to the researcher, the contract relied on outdated Solidity code that lacked modern overflow protections, creating an unexpected path to unlock the funds.
Working With the Original Team
Rather than exploiting the bug independently, Florent contacted the HongCoin team and proposed a solution. The contract included an administrative function originally designed to distribute bounty rewards. By using a specific input value, the function could reset certain balances and allow refunds to proceed.
The process was tested on a mainnet fork before the project's multisig signers approved and executed the necessary transactions. The entire recovery effort reportedly took around one week from initial contact to completion.
Investors Begin Claiming Funds
According to Florent, 48 original investors are eligible to reclaim funds, with 41 requiring balance resets and seven able to claim directly. Two investors have already withdrawn a combined 96.5 ETH and voluntarily rewarded the researcher for his efforts.
The case highlights how forgotten smart contracts from Ethereum's early years can still hold substantial value. Florent said he recently built tools to scan for contracts containing more than 100 ETH, hoping to identify additional opportunities for responsible recoveries rather than exploits.
