NowSwap
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 22 → 50. Problems weighed by who is responsible: incidents the subject suffered −9.6, concerns that are not fraud −6.4, problems around the subject, caused by others −0.8; legitimacy credit long-running +6; no longer operating, so capped at 50. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -6.4 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -9.6 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -0.8 |
| Long-running | +6 |
| Sum | 54 |
- No longer operating, so capped at 50.
Score: 50/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
NowSwap is an Ethereum-based automated market maker (AMM) decentralized exchange that launched in July 2021, positioning itself as the first DEX optimized for small-size trades under $3,000. On September 15, 2021, the protocol suffered a smart contract exploit resulting in the loss of approximately $1.07 million in USDT and WETH, caused by an incomplete code update that left an invalid K-value check in the pair contract. Following the exploit, the protocol's total value locked effectively collapsed to near zero and has remained dormant, with no evidence of remediation, audit, or resumed operations.
Connected Entities
4 entities · 60 linked investigations- Uranium Finance→mentioned with→Ethereum(75%)
- NowSwap→mentioned with→1inch(70%)
- NowSwap→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- NowSwap→mentioned with→Uranium Finance(80%)
- 1inch→mentioned with→Ethereum(60%)
Timeline(7 events)
2021
NowSwap protocol reportedly launched on Ethereum mainnet (approximate, per Quadriga Initiative case study).
8 July 2021
NowSwap publicly announced via Medium post as 'the 1st DEX focused on smaller trades,' targeting sub-$3,000 transactions on Ethereum.
4 August 2021
NowSwap published a second Medium post titled 'Broadening the Accessibility of Decentralized Finance to Retail Traders.'
15 September 2021
Smart contract exploit executed in Ethereum block 13229001. Attacker drained 535,706 USDT and 158.28 WETH (~$1.07 million) via an invalid K-value check in the pair contract. Stolen USDT converted to ETH via 1inch, then laundered through Tornado Cash across four transactions. Exploit first identified by @PuPuThrashing and analyzed by PeckShield and BlockSec.
15 September 2021
NowSwap team took the application offline for investigation and stated they would work with law enforcement for fund recovery.
17 September 2021
Halborn published a detailed post-mortem of the NowSwap hack, documenting the K-value vulnerability and its parallels to the April 2021 Uranium Finance exploit.
2024
NowSwap TVL on DefiLlama reported at approximately $4.77, effectively zero. No evidence of resumed operations, audit, or team activity since the 2021 exploit.
Decision Log
- slot 455361457 · hash Dr7H89DUbRaAGwkypAawX9c3JhWP7YXJcgSXJrUWP5Ry
- slot 422779228 · hash BnD2hKvN1D2zdYjg4Z82DjMWfh4wFe4LvmkCoVCndyQi
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (2 decisions). 6 of 8 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:54 AM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:42:07 PM
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