The landscape of cryptocurrency investment is increasingly plagued by the machinations of fraudsters who cleverly mask their deceit within the guise of promising blockchain projects. Recent investigations spearheaded by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT have unearthed a disturbing trend where scammers redirect funds pilfered from various hacks into these illusory ventures, setting the stage for devastating financial losses.
ZachXBT’s thorough investigations revealed that entities like Zebra DAO, Leaper Finance, and Glori Finance were artificially buoyed by liquidity siphoned from previous criminal exploits. Alarmingly, shortly after these revelations surfaced online, these projects abruptly vanished from the digital world, erasing their websites and social media footprints, thereby casting their investors into a quagmire of uncertainty and risk.
This nefarious pattern isn’t confined to one blockchain but spans several, including Solana, Base, Scroll, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, and Ethereum. These networks have become fertile ground for fraudulent schemes dubbed “rug pulls,” where scammers withdraw all deposited funds from a project and disappear without a trace.
Particularly brazen was the response from Leaper Finance, which initially praised ZachXBT for his investigative prowess in a now-erased social media post, only to then propose an audacious collaboration on launching a new scam token. Such audacity underscores the rampant boldness among crypto scammers, even under the glare of investigative scrutiny.
Adding to this complex web, ZachXBT linked these swindlers to prior thefts involving projects like Lendora, Kokomo Finance, Magnate Finance, and Solfire. This recycling of stolen funds into new scams paints a grim portrait of a cyclical plunder of investor capital, highlighting an urgent need for vigilance among crypto investors.
Amid these disheartening developments, Ethereum’s Base protocol has emerged as a particular hotspot for phishing scams, with substantial sums extracted from unsuspecting victims. The proliferation of such incidents is expected to accelerate, given the protocol’s swelling popularity and diverse asset offerings, which attract not only legitimate users but also malicious actors looking to capitalize on the burgeoning market.
This surge in criminal activity coincides with a memecoin frenzy that has significantly enhanced the total value locked on the platform, signaling a robust—and increasingly risky—investment environment. Prospective investors are strongly advised to engage in meticulous background checks on project founders and ensure projects have undergone rigorous audits. Studies, such as one conducted by Hacken last October, demonstrate a high correlation between the absence of audit reports and the likelihood of a project being a scam.
This situation serves as a critical reminder to all participants in the crypto space to maintain a high degree of skepticism and perform due diligence before engaging with any blockchain venture, as the cost of overlooking such measures can be devastatingly high.
