Developer frees 1,003.62 ETH from 2016 HongCoin ICO

On May 31, 2026, an Ethereum developer using the handle 0xFlorent_ posted that he had recovered 1,003.62 ETH — about $2 million — locked in HongCoin’s 2016 ICO smart contract. The recovery restores the ability of 48 original investors to claim refunds that had been inaccessible for nine years.

HongCoin’s contract was coded to return ETH if the project missed its funding goal, but a bug in the refund logic prevented eligible contributors from withdrawing funds. The developer said he found a workaround that corrected how the contract recognized blocked holders. After applying the fix, HongCoin executed 41 unlock transactions that returned ETH to investor addresses, with on-chain records available as proof.

The problem stemmed from the contract using the wrong numeric value to determine refund eligibility. That error left contributions unreachable even though the contract remained active on the Ethereum network. By changing how the contract identified eligible holders, the developer triggered refunds without transferring funds to himself.

The developer wrote on social media, “I unlocked 1,003.62 Ξ ($2,000,000) trapped in a 2016 ICO smart contract for 9 years.” He pointed to blockchain records showing the recovered funds and the wallets that received the unlock transactions.

Security experts note such recoveries are uncommon. Andy Yajin Zhou, associate professor and co-founder of an on-chain security firm, called the case ‘‘unique’’ and warned many old contracts remain inaccessible because of lost private keys or irreversible code paths. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, said some written-off assets may be recoverable when the original team can be reached and the contract logic allows safe workarounds.

The recovery comes while the decentralized finance sector has recorded major losses this year. Industry figures show more than $840 million lost in the first five months of 2026, with April accounting for over $600 million of that total.

Initial coin offerings were a common fundraising method in Ethereum’s early years. Investors sent ETH to smart contracts in exchange for project tokens. Those contracts remain on-chain and can lock funds indefinitely if coded with mistakes or if key holders disappear. There is no reliable estimate for how much ETH is permanently trapped in legacy contracts, and recoveries depend on each contract’s code and the ability to coordinate with project maintainers.