Summary
Snowdog (SDOG) was an Avalanche-based OlympusDAO fork launched in November 2021 as a self-described '8-day decentralized reserve meme coin experiment' by the anonymous team behind Snowbank DAO. The project accumulated a $44 million MIM treasury before a planned token buyback on November 25, 2021, collapsed the token price by over 90% within seconds, with alleged insiders exploiting a hidden 'challengeKey' mechanism to extract approximately $20 million in profits while ordinary holders were locked out. The team declined to acknowledge deliberate wrongdoing, characterizing the event as a 'game-theory experiment gone wrong,' and subsequently renounced ownership, leaving investors with near-total losses.
Connected Entities
1 entitiesTimeline(10 events)
2021-11-14
SnowdogDAO announced on Twitter by the anonymous Snowbank DAO team; 8-day protocol lifespan and buyback plan disclosed.
2021-11-17
Minting window opens; users begin depositing collateral to accumulate SDOG tokens.
2021-11-22
Minting window closes. Treasury at this point held approximately $44.36 million in MIM.
2021-11-24
Three exploit wallet addresses created approximately one day before the buyback event; wallets funded within hours of each other.
2021-11-25
Day 8 buyback event executed at approximately 9:00 PM UTC. All liquidity migrated from Trader Joe to the proprietary Snowswap AMM. SDOG price spikes briefly then collapses over 90% within approximately 30 seconds. Three alleged insider wallets collectively extract approximately $20 million in MIM using the undisclosed challengeKey mechanism.
2021-11-26
CryptoSlate, Benzinga, U.Today, CryptoBriefing, and multiple other outlets report on the collapse. Community begins alleging rug pull. Snowbank team releases initial statement characterizing the event as a 'game-theory experiment gone wrong.'
2021-11-27
Snowbank DAO renounces ownership of Snowdog and promises to transfer all assets including social media accounts, Discord, and LP tokens to the community.
2021-12-03
Community-formed Snowdog DAO publishes its first governance proposal via Snapshot, seeking community vote on asset recovery path.
2021-12-03
Lossless DeFi publishes detailed technical case report on the SnowdogDAO exploit as a cautionary study.
2022-01-01
No substantive recovery or restitution materializes. Token remains active on Avalanche at sharply diminished value with no active development.
Decision Log
- hash: n6zMxej4zPmbyG9TcZKx8RApTnuu2KMj7sHrvasKZci
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, 2:54:53 AM
last updated: 5/21/2026, 3:21:07 AM
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