SafeMoon is neither safe nor going to the moon

about 1 year ago

Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.

SafeMoon’s liquidity pool has been hacked for $8.9M, meaning contrary to what the name may suggest, SafeMoon is neither safe nor going to the moon.

I don’t care if it’s been used to death, I have literally been waiting forever to be able to use this headline and I’m going to god damned use it.

Let me start by saying that yes, I do feel like an arsehole writing this article.

Anyone who has been in this space will have lost money to some sort of hack, exploit or straight up rug pull and IT SUCKS.

I don’t want to kick anyone who is down and hurting right now, so if this is you, please cover your eyes and ears.

You’ll live to fight another day.

But to the team, my god.

You can’t call yourself SafeMoon and not expect a bit of flak when you’re hacked and your price tanks.

Safe?

Nope.

To the moon?

Certainly not.

Anyway, let’s talk about the project, the hack and what this means for the future of SafeMoon.

SafeMoon is not safe

On March 29th 2023, SafeMoon was hit by a devastating exploit, resulting in the loss of $8.9 million.

Hackers leveraged a public burn bug to drain one of the DEX's liquidity pools, leaving investors reeling.

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the hack:

The hacker exploited a public burn function in SafeMoon's newest contract, allowing tokens to be burned from any address.
Using this exploit, the attacker removed SFM tokens from the SafeMoon WBNB Liquidity Pool.
By removing SFM tokens from the liquidity pool, the token's price was artificially inflated.
The hacker sold the overpriced SFM tokens back into the liquidity pool in the same transaction.
By doing so, the hacker drained the remaining wBNB in the pool.

Sadly, this isn't the first time SafeMoon has come under scrutiny.

The project has been plagued by controversy since its inception, with critics questioning its legitimacy and the intentions of its creators.

Despite this, many retail investors have put their faith in the project, hoping to reap rewards.

Sadly, the recent hack shows that investing in SafeMoon has been anything but safe."

SafeMoon is not going to the moon

On the same day as the hack, the hacker made a move that surprised many in the crypto community.

In one transaction, they attached a note stating that they had accidentally front-run an attack against SafeMoon and that they wanted to return the exploited funds.

“Hey relax, we are accidently frontrun an attack against you, we would like to return the fund, setup secure communication channel, lets talk.”

With English obviously not their native language, I’d resist the urge to read anything into the wording.

While this move may seem like a positive step towards the recovery of the stolen funds, it also raises concerns about the state of SafeMoon’s security going forward.

Could the fact that hackers were able to exploit a public burn function in the contract indicate that there may be further vulnerabilities in the code that have yet to be discovered?

Who knows.

But investors who put their faith in SafeMoon with hopes of getting rich quick are now left to deal with the fallout of the recent hack.

Proponents have long touted the project as the next big thing in crypto, with claims of revolutionary features and exponential price growth being inevitable.

However, the hack has revealed the harsh truth that the project is far from being as safe and secure as it claims to be.

Unfortunately, the recent hack has also shown, SafeMoon’s claims of going "to the moon" may also be nothing more than an empty promise.

Best of probabilities to you.