The Miraculous Return of 100 ETH: A Crypto User’s Redemption Story

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A heartwarming tale from the cold, unfeeling world of crypto, where a user managed to recover a fortune after losing 100 ETH due to a wallet glitch. Yes, you read that right—hope is not dead in the blockchain universe.

It was the collective heroism of the Safe Wallet team and the white-hat developers over at Protofire that turned what could’ve been a disaster into a remarkable recovery.

The Great 100 ETH Disaster: From Lost to Found—A Tale of Redemption

The saga began when long-time Ethereum enthusiast, Khalo_0x, attempted to bridge 100 ETH from the Ethereum Mainnet to the Base blockchain using the official Safe Wallet Bridge interface. No big deal, right? A simple task, like crossing a bridge—except, the bridge was more like a rickety plank over a canyon.

At the time of writing, with ETH trading at a healthy $2,635, Khalo was about to send over $263,500. That’s a lot of coins to lose to a bug, don’t you think?

Unbeknownst to our poor soul Khalo, the transfer took a wrong turn straight into a smart contract wallet that looked like his, but wasn’t. Who knew wallets could play dress-up? This wallet, despite its deceiving appearance, was actually controlled by an entirely different entity. A well-dressed imposter, if you will.

The issue stemmed from Khalo’s outdated version of Safe (v1.1.1), dating back to 2020. This version had the charm of being ancient and predated the multichain capabilities that now come with modern crypto life. A lot like using a rotary phone in the age of smartphones, really.

As a result, an attacker—or so it seemed at first—had deployed Khalo’s wallet address on the Base chain but configured it differently. The funds were hijacked as soon as they were bridged. Ouch.

“I lost my life savings in one click using Safe last night. That’s after 8 years of holding ETH and avoiding scams. A UX bug within the official Bridge feature implied the destination address was my Safe on Base. It wasn’t,” Khalo lamented. It was a heartbreak for the ages.

The cry for help quickly spread across the crypto universe, catching the attention of the Safe Wallet team. Builder Tschubotz.eth, ever the sleuth, investigated and discovered the “hacker” wasn’t a hacker at all. No, the funds were safe after all. The wallet wasn’t malicious—it was actually a white-hat operation.

Old Wallet Version—The Gateway to the Multichain Nightmare

Turns out, Protofire, a white-hat development firm, had proactively deployed hundreds of Safe v1.1.1 wallets on Base, all in an effort to keep the bad guys at bay. Their thinking was ahead of the game—clearly.

“Unlike EOAs (Externally Owned Accounts), smart accounts like Safe are governed by deployed smart contract code. It’s technically possible to deploy a smart account with the same deployment config (same signers) on different chains at the same address (using counterfactual deployment)…But this case was different…” Safe co-founder Lukas Schor explained. And this, dear readers, is how cryptos get tangled in red tape.

After some rapid identity verification, Protofire swooped in like crypto superheroes and returned the full 100 ETH. A successful test transaction followed, and just hours after the crisis began, Khalo’s funds were safely back in their rightful place.

“This is one of the coolest crypto stories I’ve seen in a while,” said Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly. Oh yes, it was a feel-good moment for all involved. Kind of like the end of a heartwarming sports movie, but with less running and more coding.

This story brings to light the urgent need for more robust user protections as crypto wallets evolve to accommodate multichain ecosystems. Safe’s updated version v1.2.0 now includes protections to prevent exploits like this by changing how the CREATE2 salt is calculated during contract deployment. Progress, at last!

The bridge tool has also received an upgrade, now issuing warnings if conflicting smart contract code exists at the destination address. A little extra caution never hurt anyone. Except for the scammers, of course.

But as always, this is a reminder that the crypto world is still a landmine of subtle bugs waiting to explode when least expected.

“…we are still at a point where users are expected to do test transactions before moving bigger funds,” Schor added. Alas, the crypto life is not for the faint of heart.

Despite the initial trauma, Khalo’s tale ends on a positive note—his funds were restored, and all was right with the world once more. Who said crypto couldn’t have a happy ending?

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2025-06-04 09:31