What happened to the Hong Coin ICO funds?

A white-hat hacker known as 0xflorent helped recover about 1,003 ETH, worth roughly $2 million, that had been locked in the Hong Coin (HONG) ICO smart contract since 2016. The funds belonged to 48 investors who were supposed to receive refunds after the project failed to meet its fundraising target.

Why were Hong Coin investors unable to get their money back?

The Hong Coin smart contract contained a bug in its refund function that prevented the automatic return of investor funds. As a result, the Ether remained trapped in the contract for nearly a decade despite the project's failure.

How did the white-hat hacker recover the locked ETH?

0xflorent identified a flaw in an admin function that contained an integer overflow vulnerability. By using a specific input, the function reset token holder balances and reactivated the contract's refund mechanism, allowing investors to reclaim their funds.

What is an integer overflow vulnerability?

An integer overflow occurs when a number exceeds the maximum value a smart contract can handle, causing unexpected behaviour. In this case, the vulnerability created a way to bypass the bug that had blocked refunds for years.

What was Hong Coin trying to build?

Hong Coin was launched in 2016 as a decentralised venture capital fund. The project planned to operate as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), allowing token holders to vote on which projects should receive investment funding.

Did Hong Coin ever launch successfully?

No. The ICO ran from August to October 2016 but failed to reach its funding goal. Because the fundraising target was not met, investors were supposed to receive refunds rather than HONG tokens.

Have any investors already received their refunds?

Yes. Blockchain data shows that at least one investor has already received a refund of 96 ETH, while another received 0.5 ETH. Additional refunds are expected as the recovery process continues.

Why is this recovery important for crypto investors?

The case highlights how coding errors in early smart contracts can leave funds inaccessible for years. It also demonstrates the value of security researchers and white-hat hackers who help recover assets without exploiting users for personal gain.

Image for illustrative purposes only. Not a real photo.

Hong Coin investors recover $2M after decade

Written by Isaac FrancisPublished Jun. 1 2026Last Updated Jun. 1 2026

A white-hat hacker has helped recover approximately $2 million worth of Ether that had been trapped in a faulty Hong Coin ICO smart contract since 2016, enabling long-delayed refunds for dozens of investors.

The pseudonymous researcher, known as 0xflorent, said about 1,003 ETH belonging to 48 investors was recovered after identifying a workaround for a bug that had disabled the project's automatic refund mechanism.

“The contract held all the investors' ETH and was supposed to auto-refund them,”

Said 0xflorent, adding:

“However, a bug in the refund function quietly broke that, and the funds got stuck.”

Hong Coin was launched in 2016 as a decentralised venture capital fund that aimed to let token holders vote on investment decisions through a decentralised autonomous organisation, but the project failed to reach its fundraising target.

Investors who contributed Ether during the ICO were supposed to receive refunds after the sale ended without meeting its funding goal, but a flaw in the smart contract left the funds inaccessible for nearly a decade.

“The way out was an admin function with an integer overflow vulnerability,”

Said 0xflorent, adding:

“Calling it with a specific input resets a holder's balance and unblocks the refund check.”

Blockchain data shows at least one investor has already received a refund of 96 ETH, while another recovered 0.5 ETH, with additional repayments expected as the recovery process continues.

The recovery follows another effort by 0xflorent in May, when the researcher helped retrieve a combined 19.33 ETH from a failed 2018 ICO project and a user affected by funds trapped in a cross-chain transfer protocol.

At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $2,012.14.