Hacker creates memecoin after stealing $870,000 from RocketSwap on Base

RocketSwap, a decentralized exchange built on the Base Layer 2 network, has been hacked. The perpetrator made off with 471 ETH ($870,000), according to security firm PeckShield.

RocketSwap’s team claimed to have identified the cause of the hack as a series of lapses, including the DEX's use of offline signatures in the launchpad deployment and a decision to store private keys on the server.

In the aftermath, some social media users leveled accusations against the team, suggesting the possibility of a rug pull, but the team insists a third-party hacker is to blame. 

The team claimed the hacker executed a brute force assault on a cloud server used by the project, enabling them to extract RocketSwap's private keys and then made asset transfers from its yield farm.

"We are sorry to inform you that the team needed to use offline signatures when deploying the launchpad and put the private keys on the server. A brute force hack of the server was detected, and due to the proxy contract used for the farm contract, there were multiple high-risk permissions that led to the transfer of the farm's assets," it said.

This latest hack marks the second significant security lapse on the Base network in quick succession, following a hack on another decentralized exchange, LeetSwap, which lost $630,000 on July 31.

The Base network’s developer-only mainnet was activated in July, initiating a phase restricted to developers and followed by a wider public release. Since the developer phase, over $200 million in assets has been transferred to the network from Ethereum.

Hacker's memecoin antics 

Following yesterday's RocketSwap incident, PeckShield noticed that RocketSwap’s hacker moved the stolen assets from the Base blockchain to Ethereum and quickly created a memecoin named LoveRCKT.

This newly minted token was then paired with 400 ETH of liquidity on Uniswap. Despite being deployed by the hacker, traders piled in. LoveRCKT’s price tripled in just one day, rising from $0.00000001 to $0.00000003, before dropping by more than 90%.