Key facts
- An attacker drained 3.6 million ETH from The DAO ten years ago.
- The exploit utilized a reentrancy vulnerability.
- Fixes for the vulnerability were awaiting community approval when the attack occurred.
- The event resulted in a hard fork that created Ethereum Classic.
Ten years ago, a significant exploit targeted The DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization built on the Ethereum blockchain. An attacker successfully drained 3.6 million ETH, valued at approximately $6.26 billion at current prices, through a reentrancy vulnerability. This exploit occurred despite the fact that potential fixes for the vulnerability had been identified weeks prior but were still awaiting approval from the DAO's community. The contentious nature of the response to the hack led to a hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain, resulting in the creation of Ethereum Classic.