Canonical Investigations

Real incidents,
verified evidence.

Each investigation reconstructs a real Web3 security incident from on-chain evidence: what happened, when, where the value went, and what the evidence proves or could not prove.

See the evidence before you trust the verdict.

8

In corpus

5

Chains covered

2021-2023

Incident range

Counts reflect the XemaS investigation corpus - a curated selection, not a catalogue of all historical incidents.

Failure categories

Browse by
Chain
Protocol Type
Failure Category
Attack Mechanism
Attribution
Recovery

Incident corpus

Each page is a permanent, evidence-backed reference for its incident.

CRITICALBNB Chain
Rug pullNov 2021
BNB ChainMeme TokenMalicious DesignTransfer RestrictionUnattributed
Recovery:No Recovery

Squid Game Token (SQUID)

Anonymous deployer, honeypot transfer logic, no liquidity lock. Risk score 97.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
?Attribution:Unresolved
Loss:High
Recovery:Verified
Read the investigation
DEPEG - RESTOREDEthereum
Depeg eventMar 2023
EthereumStablecoinFinancial InfrastructureReserve ExposureN/A
Recovery:Full Recovery

USDC / SVB Depeg (2023)

A banking failure priced on-chain in hours: $3.3B reserve exposure, ~$0.88 low, DAI contagion, information-driven recovery.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
-Attribution:N/A
Loss:Moderate
Recovery:Verified
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - RETURNEDEthereum
Protocol exploitMar 2023
EthereumLendingCode DefectAccounting ErrorUnattributed
Recovery:Negotiated Return

Euler Finance Exploit (2023)

A governance upgrade skipped one health check: ~$197M drained via donate-and-self-liquidate, then returned over three weeks.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
?Attribution:Unresolved
Loss:Moderate
Recovery:Verified
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - PARTIAL RECOVERYEthereum
Bridge exploitAug 2022
EthereumBridgeCode DefectInitialization ErrorUnattributed
Recovery:Partial Recovery

Nomad Bridge Hack (2022)

One zeroed initialization parameter made verification a no-op: ~$190M drained permissionlessly by hundreds of copycat addresses.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
?Attribution:Unresolved
Loss:Moderate
Recovery:Low
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - PARTIAL RECOVERYEthereum / Ronin
Bridge exploitMar 2022
RoninBridgeOperational SecurityKey CompromiseState Actor
Recovery:Partial Recovery

Ronin Bridge Hack (2022)

Five of nine validator keys compromised: 173,600 ETH and 25.5M USDC drained in two forged withdrawals and undetected for 6 days. Attributed to Lazarus Group by US Treasury.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
Attribution:High
Loss:High
Recovery:Moderate
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - NO RECOVERYEthereum / Harmony
Bridge exploitJun 2022
HarmonyBridgeOperational SecurityKey CompromiseState Actor
Recovery:No Recovery

Harmony Horizon Bridge Hack (2022)

Two of five validator keys compromised: ~$100M drained 91 days after Ronin, moved through Tornado Cash within hours. Same attacker group; complete loss. Attributed to Lazarus Group by FBI and OFAC.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
Attribution:High
Loss:High
Recovery:Verified
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - PARTIAL RECOVERYSolana
Oracle manipulationOct 2022
SolanaDEX / AMMEconomic DesignOracle ManipulationJudicial
Recovery:Governance Settlement

Mango Markets Oracle Manipulation (2022)

No code exploit: oracle assumptions failed. MNGO oracle price inflated ~30x; $116M borrowed against manufactured collateral. Conviction: Avraham Eisenberg, SDNY, April 2024.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
Attribution:Verified
Loss:High
Recovery:High
Read the investigation
EXPLOITED - NO RECOVERYEthereum
Governance exploitApr 2022
EthereumGovernanceGovernanceFlash Loan GovernanceUnattributed
Recovery:No Recovery

Beanstalk Farms Governance Exploit (2022)

No code exploit: governance assumptions failed. Flash-borrowed supermajority passed a malicious BIP in one block; $182M drained with no execution delay to stop it. Complete loss.

Evidence

Incident:Verified
?Attribution:Unresolved
Loss:High
Recovery:Verified
Read the investigation
Methodology

How investigations are produced

The same evidence standard that governs every platform scan governs every investigation.

One evidence standard

Every claim is collected, verified, and resolved into facts before it appears. The same pipeline the platform uses internally - not a separate editorial standard.

Honest limits stated

Where evidence was not visible, the investigation says so explicitly. A claim we cannot support does not appear, and coverage limits are part of the report, not a footnote.

Admission gate

A page is a canonical investigation only when it reconstructs a real incident from on-chain evidence that passes the Entity History admission gate.

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