The DAO Hack 2016
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anchored·3nDDBB…1wS2Summary
The DAO was a decentralized autonomous organization launched on Ethereum in April 2016 that raised approximately $150 million in ETH — the largest crowdfund in history at the time. On June 17, 2016, an unknown attacker exploited a reentrancy vulnerability in its smart contract code, draining approximately 3.6 million ETH (roughly $60–70 million at the time). The incident led to a contentious Ethereum hard fork on July 20, 2016, splitting the chain into Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC), and triggered the SEC's 2017 finding that DAO tokens were unregistered securities.
Connected Entities
6 entities · 60 linked investigations- The DAO→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- The DAO→mentioned with→Poloniex(65%)
- The DAO Hack 2016→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- The DAO Hack 2016→mentioned with→The DAO(85%)
- The DAO Hack 2016→mentioned with→Poloniex(75%)
- Ethereum Foundation→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Ethereum Classic→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Ethereum Classic(80%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Ethereum Foundation(80%)
- The DAO Hack 2016→mentioned with→Ethereum Classic(80%)
- + 3 more
Timeline(10 events)
30 April 2016
The DAO token sale launches on Ethereum, built by Slock.it (Christoph and Simon Jentzsch). A 28-day crowdfunding window opens.
The DAO - Wikipedia15 May 2016
The DAO surpasses $100 million raised, marking the largest crowdfund in history at that time.
The DAO - Wikipedia21 May 2016
The DAO token sale closes, having raised over 11.5 million ETH (~$150 million) from more than 11,000 participants.
Bitcoin Magazine9 June 2016
Emin Gun Sirer and colleagues publish 'A Call for a Temporary Moratorium on The DAO,' identifying the recursive-call vulnerability that would later be exploited.
CoinDesk / Fortune17 June 2016
An unknown attacker begins draining The DAO via a reentrancy exploit, recursively calling the splitDAO() withdrawal function before state updates occur. Approximately 3.6 million ETH (~$50-70M) is transferred to a child DAO controlled by the attacker.
Chainlink Blog / Gemini Cryptopedia18 June 2016
The alleged attacker publishes an open letter claiming their actions constituted use of a legitimate 'feature' in The DAO's code. ETH price drops from ~$20 to ~$13.
Pastebin open letter / CoinDesk20 July 2016
The Ethereum hard fork activates at block 1,920,000, executing an irregular state change that transfers ~12 million ETH from the attacker's child DAO into a recovery contract. Approximately 85% of miners adopt the forked chain.
Ethereum Foundation Blog24 July 2016
Poloniex lists the original, unforked Ethereum chain as Ethereum Classic (ETC), the first exchange to recognize the minority chain.
Ethereum Classic History25 July 2017
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issues its Report of Investigation concluding that DAO tokens were securities under federal law, applying the Howey test. No enforcement action is brought but the report warns future token issuers.
SEC.gov Press Release22 February 2022
Journalist Laura Shin publishes 'The Cryptopians' and an accompanying Forbes article, alleging — based on Chainalysis blockchain forensics — that TenX co-founder and former CEO Toby Hoenisch was the DAO attacker. Hoenisch denies the claim.
The BlockDecision Log
- slot 424139622 · hash BmApD86aDzvVVtWAmYWvB6XvDcDBmthG3d8ZQZugz2PV
- slot 424139618 · hash CrLnkeEf4AS5qsBA27uMYS9qU8mbg8X73TQ3QNNQzh5s
- slot 423640516 · hash 4Ka66uhYcZqNubfDSPbwme7QLd9ewgv5wsKtUSvDc5K6
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (3 decisions). 16 of 18 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 6/1/2026, 5:49:40 PM
last updated: 6/1/2026, 5:49:40 PM
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