Hope Finance
Summary
Hope Finance was an Arbitrum-based DeFi protocol that launched in January 2023, positioning itself around an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to 0.001 ETH. On February 20, 2023 — the same day the platform went live — approximately $2 million (1,095 ETH) was drained from its Genesis Rewards Pool in what blockchain security firms CertiK and PeckShield assessed as an insider-orchestrated exit scam, making it the largest exit scam recorded on Arbitrum at that time. Stolen funds were bridged to Ethereum and routed through Tornado Cash; the protocol's website subsequently went offline and the team became unreachable.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(7 events)
2023-01-01
Hope Finance Twitter account created; project announced plans for an algorithmic stablecoin (HOPE token) pegged to 0.001 ETH on Arbitrum.
CoinTelegraph2023-02-01
Cognitos completes smart contract audit of Hope Finance, flagging reentrancy risks and an incorrect modifier but marking the contract as having passed the audit.
CoinCu News2023-02-20
Hope Finance launches on Arbitrum. On the same day, the Genesis Rewards Pool is drained of approximately $2 million (1,095 ETH) via a fake router contract approved by the project's own multisig signers.
CryptoPotato2023-02-20
Stolen funds bridged from Arbitrum to Ethereum via CelrBridge and deposited into Tornado Cash across three wallet addresses.
CertiK2023-02-20
Hope Finance team posts on Twitter, identifying alleged attacker as Ugwoke Pascal Chukwuebuka and sharing a photograph of the individual with a voter ID card.
CoinCu News2023-02-21
CertiK and PeckShield publish on-chain analyses confirming the exit scam and tracing fund flows to Tornado Cash. CertiK characterizes the incident as driven by centralization vulnerabilities and multisig mishandling.
CertiK2023-02-21
Cognitos contact person at Hope Finance reportedly deactivates their account. Hope Finance website goes offline; Discord becomes inaccessible.
CryptoSlateDecision Log
- hash: 2pkw3WmpXJV9CHTXRZtwPjmgJrt8z2RVTmJpCVzTDXY5
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:44 AM
last updated: 5/28/2026, 4:12:41 PM
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