Summary
Swaprum was an Arbitrum-based decentralized exchange (DEX) that launched in early 2023 and operated briefly before its anonymous development team executed a deliberate exit scam on May 18, 2023. The team exploited a backdoor function embedded in an upgraded smart contract to drain approximately 1,628 ETH (roughly $3 million) from user liquidity pools, then laundered the proceeds through Tornado Cash and deleted all official communication channels. No funds have been recovered and no arrests have been publicly reported.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(8 events)
2023-05-01
CertiK begins smart contract audit of Swaprum at the team's request.
2023-05-05
CertiK publishes its audit of Swaprum, flagging 4 major findings related to centralization/privilege. Zero findings are fully resolved by the team.
2023-05-18
Swaprum deployer (0xaaf8b44376f4ef3eD477eeEB3553b7623FEF5E1c) upgrades the MasterChef reward contract to a malicious version containing add() and getToken() backdoor functions, executes the exit scam, and drains approximately 1,628 ETH (~$3 million) from user liquidity pools.
2023-05-18
Stolen ETH is bridged from Arbitrum to Ethereum mainnet via Multichain, AcrossProtocol, and CelerNetwork, then approximately 1,620 ETH is routed through Tornado Cash.
2023-05-18
SAPR token price collapses from approximately $0.147 to $0.000022, a decline of over 99%.
2023-05-19
PeckShield publicly alerts the community to the Swaprum rug pull via Twitter.
2023-05-19
Swaprum team deletes its Twitter/X account, Telegram group, and GitHub repository. The website remains accessible temporarily.
2023-05-20
Multiple major outlets including The Block, CoinTelegraph, Decrypt, and CryptoPotato publish full coverage of the incident. CertiK issues a statement clarifying the backdoor was introduced post-audit.
Decision Log
- hash: 4V3nzmFdbBUn84b9yjapCqaE4R5yviDhXYsdoAxJsxXW
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, 2:54:42 AM
last updated: 5/28/2026, 3:51:45 PM
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