Whitehat recovers 1,003 ETH from dormant 2016 HongCoin ICO contract

A security researcher known as 0xFlorent has reportedly recovered about 1,003.62 ETH from a dormant 2016 HongCoin ICO contract after reopening a refund path that had been broken for years.

The key point in the reporting is that this was described as a coordinated whitehat recovery, not an unauthorized drain. Research linked the move to the project’s original multisig or control path, which allowed the trapped funds to be unlocked.

On-chain records on Etherscan show a HongCoin refund transaction dated May 29, 2026. Later reports from June 1 said the recovery had freed roughly 1,003 ETH, or about $2 million, from the old contract.

The HongCoin ICO dates to 2016, and the refund flow had reportedly been inaccessible for years. Coverage says 48 investors are affected and can now claim funds.

The immediate unanswered questions are how the remaining claims will be distributed, whether HongCoin will publish a full postmortem, and whether other dormant ICO contracts could be recovered in a similar way.