A white-hat researcher known as 0xFlorent helped recover 1,003.62 ETH worth about $2 million from the HongCoin contract. The funds had remained trapped since the 2016 ICO failed to meet its goal.
The recovery used an unpatched integer overflow in an admin function restricted to the original multisig wallet. 0xFlorent coordinated with HongCoin's team, which signed 41 transactions to reset token balances and bypass a broken refund check. Seven smaller holders refunded directly without the workaround, while 48 original investors became eligible to claim funds.
