Author: Zero Time Technology

Foreword

With the rapid development of DeFi, decentralized finance has transformed from a niche hobby for tech enthusiasts into a hotbed for ordinary people seeking high returns. Staking mining, liquidity mining, lending with interest... various methods are emerging one after another, with annualized returns often reaching tens or even hundreds of percentage points, making it hard for anyone not to be tempted.

However, the other side of the coin is risk. On April 1, 2026, Drift Protocol, a leading perpetual contract DEX in the Solana ecosystem, suffered a major attack, resulting in losses of approximately $220 million to $285 million, making it the largest DeFi hack of 2026 to date.

This incident serves as a stark reminder: in the world of DeFi, there is no customer service to help you recover your funds, and no bank to bail you out. Every interaction places full responsibility on you for your assets.

To help everyone avoid risks, the Zero Time Technology security team has summarized 5 key security checks that must be completed before participating in DeFi, based on real attack cases, to help you identify risks before operation and safeguard the bottom line of asset security.

How are DeFi risks unfolding?

Many people think that hacker attacks are far removed from their lives, but the reality is that most asset losses occur during users' "normal operations".

You didn't do anything particularly wrong; you just overlooked something at some point. Here are four of the most common risk paths:

1. Improper authorization → Assets transferred away

You clicked "Approve," granting the contract unlimited access to your wallet. If the contract acts maliciously or is hacked, your assets will be wiped out instantly.

2. Visiting a phishing website → Your wallet is compromised.

You searched for a project, clicked the top ad link, and the page looked exactly like the official website. After connecting your wallet, your mnemonic phrase or signature had been obtained by hackers.

3. Contract loophole → Funds were "legally stolen"

The project itself is legitimate, but its code contains vulnerabilities. Hackers exploited these vulnerabilities to bypass restrictions and withdraw funds from the protocol's vault—including your assets.

4. Project Rug Pull → Liquidity Drained

The project team was a scam from the start. Once you've deposited enough funds, they'll withdraw the tokens from the liquidity pool, instantly reducing their value to zero.

Once you understand where the risks come from, look at the following 5 checks, and you'll know where each cut landed.

✅Check 1: Contract Security — Open source + auditing is the bottom line

Many people have their assets stolen not because of sophisticated hacking skills, but because the project contracts themselves are "toxic".

⚠️What you need to do is not "believe in the project," but rather:

• Is the code open source? Check if the contract is "Verified" using a block explorer (such as Etherscan or Solscan). A contract that is not open source is like hiding the rules in a black box—don't touch it.

• Whether it has been audited: Search the project name on the official websites of auditing firms such as CertiK, PeckShield, and SlowMist to confirm that there is a genuine audit report and that high-risk vulnerabilities have been patched.

• Are there any historical vulnerabilities? Use third-party platforms such as DeFi Safety and RugDoc to enter the contract address to view the security score and past risk records.

🚩High-risk signal:

• The contract is not open source.

• No third-party audit report, or only "self-audit"

• The contract went live just a few days after deployment.

🔗Tip: If you see "Source Code Not Verified" on the "Contract" page of the block explorer, just close the page.

✅Check 2: Authorization Management — Don't let the contract lead to "unlimited withdrawals"

Many people have their assets stolen not because they've been hacked, but because they've authorized contracts they shouldn't have. When you click "Approve," you're essentially giving the contract a key—and if that key is a "master key," the contract can unlock all similar assets in your wallet at any time.

⚠️Key Inspection

• Request "Unlimited Authorization": In the authorization pop-up window, the limit is displayed as "unlimited" or "uint256 maximum value." This means the contract can transfer your assets an unlimited number of times, without being limited by the amount you deposit.

• Is it an unfamiliar contract address? Carefully verify the contract address of the authorized party to ensure it matches the address officially published by the project. Even a single letter difference could indicate a phishing attempt.

👉Recommendation

• Prioritize "Minimum Authorization": Manually adjust the authorization amount to the amount required for the current transaction each time you authorize. For example, if you only want to deposit 0.1 ETH, set the authorization amount to 0.1 ETH. This feature is already supported by Rabby and MetaMask customized wallets.

• Regularly clean up authorizations: Visit revoke.cash or etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker to see which contracts you have authorized. If you find any suspicious or unfamiliar ones, revoke them with one click.

The official revoke.cash website sample interface. It is recommended to revoke the "Unlimited" license in the circle as soon as possible.

✅Check 3: Official Entry Points — Phishing websites are more dangerous than hackers.

According to statistics, more than 60% of DeFi asset losses come from phishing attacks, rather than contract vulnerabilities.

⚠️Common Tactics

• Counterfeit official website: The domain name differs by only one letter (e.g., uniswap.com vs uniswao.com), and the page is completely copied.

• Fake airdrop pages: Promote "Get XX airdrop for free" on Twitter and Discord, and authorize the transfer of assets after connecting to your wallet.

• Search engine ad poisoning: When you search for "Uniswap", the first ad may be a phishing website with a domain name that is extremely similar to the official one.

👉Recommendation

• Access the site only through official channels: Get the official website link from the project's official Twitter, Discord announcements, and GitHub repository. Do not trust search engine ads.

• Bookmark frequently used DeFi websites: Add the official websites of protocols you use often to your browser bookmarks so you can access them from your bookmarks each time.

• Do not click on unfamiliar links: Always be suspicious of any links sent by anyone (including group members and private messages).

Tip: Install wallet plugins such as Rabby or MetaMask phishing detection version, which will automatically block known phishing domains.

✅Check 4: Abnormal Returns — High returns always hide high risks

According to statistics, more than 60% of DeFi asset losses come from phishing attacks, rather than contract vulnerabilities.

If a project:

• Annualized returns are significantly higher than the market average (e.g., stablecoin APY exceeds 20%).

• Emphasizing "risk-free arbitrage" and "guaranteed profits".

• Encourage early participation and quick engagement to create FOMO (fear of missing out).

It can be basically determined that: Risk ≈ Promised Return × 10 times

Many Rug Pull projects attract liquidity by promising "high returns." Their initial returns may come from the principal of new users (a Ponzi scheme), but once the inflow of new funds slows down, the project team simply withdraws the funds and runs away.

👉Recommendation

• Compare with market benchmarks: The APY of stablecoins on mainstream DeFi protocols (such as Aave and Compound) is typically between 2% and 8%. Any APY exceeding three times this range should raise a red flag.

• Check the project's duration: Projects that offer extremely high returns just a few days after launch are likely "honeypots".

• Search for the project name + scam / rug: Use Google or Twitter to search and see if any users have reported it.

🚩A one-sentence rule: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

✅Check 5: Asset Segregation — Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Many users have only one main wallet, where all assets, all DeFi interactions, and all NFT mint transactions are completed. Once this wallet is phished, authorized to malicious contracts, or its private key is leaked, all assets are wiped out in one fell swoop.

It is recommended to establish a "three-wallet" system:

⚠️The essence is: control single-point risks to avoid "total loss in one go".

• When participating in new projects or unverified protocols, always use a temporary wallet and deposit the minimum threshold amount for testing.

• The main wallet regularly cleans up authorizations (once a week or once a month).

• Core assets are stored in a cold wallet and are never signed, authorized, or linked to any website.

What's more terrifying than hackers are "insiders".

Besides external attacks, another risk that is often overlooked is malicious intent from insiders. These could be developers, operations and maintenance personnel, or even customer service staff.

⚠️Where does the mole come from?

• Developers or auditors implant backdoors: Developers and auditors have submission privileges and system access permissions. If one of them acts maliciously, they can implant backdoors, steal sensitive keys, and disguise it as normal development activity, making it difficult to detect.

• Core privilege administrators steal from the system: If someone holding the administrator's private key has malicious intentions, all user assets could be wiped out at once.

• Employee Abuses Job Access to Steal User Information: In February 2026, a 34-year-old network engineer at a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency investment company used his system access privileges to log into the company's database without authorization and stole 2.67 million USDT (approximately HK$20.87 million) from about 20 clients. This employee had worked at the company for four years, responsible for app development and maintenance; it was this "legitimate access" that enabled him to commit the theft.

👉How to prevent it?

• Individual users: Choose agreements with "time locks" (major operations need to be delayed by 24-48 hours), and pay attention to whether the project's multi-signature manager is open and transparent.

• Project team: Core permissions must be managed using a multisignature wallet, a time lock buffer period must be set, and internal access logs must be audited regularly.

Why do you still get infected even when you're "very careful"?

Because the attacks have shifted from exploiting "technical vulnerabilities" to exploiting "human vulnerabilities".

⚠️Common Psychological Misconceptions

• "This project is very popular, it should be fine."

• "Everyone's using it, nothing will go wrong."

• "I'll only do it once; it's unlikely to be that coincidental."

👉 The reality is: an attacker only needs you to make one mistake.

⚠️New Trend: AI + Phishing Attacks

• High-quality replica of the official website

• Automatically generates customer service dialogue

• Targeted delivery to specific users

👉 Users are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake products.

A set of the simplest DeFi security principles

If you can't remember all the checks, you can remember these 3 points 👇

• Do not delegate authority indiscriminately

• Do not click on unfamiliar links

• Don't go all in on one project

🔑In short: The risks of DeFi are not in the code you can't understand, but in every operation you ignore.

Conclusion

DeFi has brought openness and freedom, but it has also brought new security challenges. From the Drift Protocol incident to everyday phishing attacks, the risks have long since changed from "extreme events" to "normal threats."

In the face of a complex on-chain environment, what truly protects assets is not luck, but awareness and habits.

If you have any questions about the DeFi projects you are currently using, it is recommended that you conduct a security check as soon as possible.

👉In the blockchain world, security is not an add-on, but a prerequisite for entry.