A new report by blockchain security company Beosin reveals that the total amount of crypto assets lost in exit scams and rug pulls is higher than the amount stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) projects through exploitation. and assault last month.
Beosin also discovered that losses from exploits in May decreased by 79% compared to April, marking a continuous decline for two consecutive months.
Losses From Rug Pulling Beyond DeFi Exploits
More than $45 million was lost in crypto rug pulls in May in six incidents. The biggest exit scam was the DeFi lending protocol Fintoch – suspected of being a Ponzi scheme – which disappeared with 31.6 million USDT ($31.6 million) in users’ funds on May 24.
The second biggest rug pull was the theft of almost $5.9 million by Inferno Drainer, a multi-chain scam service provider, which affected about 5,000 victims. Another notable rug pull was implemented by the developers of the decentralized exchange (DEX) Swaprum on May 19. The team spent $3 million in Ether (ETH) tokens from the protocol’s liquidity pools.
Meanwhile, DeFi exploits accounted for $19.6 million worth of stolen crypto assets. The biggest exploit was the attack on the Arbitrum-based liquidity protocol Jimbos, which compromised 4,000 ETH worth about $7.5 million. Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash was also hacked for almost $2 million.
The DeFi protocol Deus Finance, which has been the victim of many attacks, was hacked again on May 5 through the public burn vulnerability of its stablecoin DEI (DEI). The attacker exploited the DEI token contracts on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and Arbitrum network and obtained more than $6 million.
Raising Anti-Fraud Awareness
The blockchain security firm also noted that hardware wallet-related security incidents increased in May. Beosin warns against a new type of coin theft using shared or public charging devices to plant malicious programs that can steal private keys.
“The amount involved in Rug Pulls has surpassed this month’s attacks, and new ways to steal coins such as using shared rechargeables to steal private keys are also emerging. Hackers and scammers gradually shifted the target of their attacks from various project parties to ordinary users,” said Beosin.
The company encourages users to raise anti-fraud awareness, learn more ways to protect their assets, and conduct due diligence on projects before investing in them. The largest exit scam in May was carried out by Fintoch, which escaped with user funds worth $31.6 million.
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