This morning, memecoin developers shifted 625 BNB in rugged funds via Tornado Cash, a privacy mechanism.
Web3Memes (W3M), a memecoin based on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), had its liquidity pools drained of almost 625 Binance Coins (BNB), according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.
At the time of writing, the sum was valued at $235,000 USD. The exploit was first discovered by PeckShield in a tweet. “$Web3Memes rugged has been discovered by PeckShield. It tweeted that “0x5adbffa751abcdfc94d2a81f5657113d37a3494f has deposited 625 BNB to TornadoCash.”
#rugpulls PeckShield has detected $Web3Memes https://t.co/IOHWEjhmVC rugged. 0x5adbffa751abcdfc94d2a81f5657113d37a3494f has deposited 625 BNB to @TornadoCash.
Stay *AWAY* from tokens that are deployed by funds withdrawn from @TornadoCash. pic.twitter.com/bsWpHALz0b— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 23, 2022
The currency was generated around early Asian hours, according to blockchain data, and was listed on BSC-based PancakeSwap shortly after. In the following hours, W3M saw over 1,800 transactions and over 1,000 holders, at the time of writing.
However, five hours after its issuance, the mysterious creators removed W3trade M’s liquidity, resulting in the infamous ‘rugpull,’ a crypto market term for such acts.
After the rugpull, W3M prices plummeted from highs of $0.000000204 to around $0.00000000277, a near 100 percent drop.
Anyone on BSC or other networks can issue tokens like Web3Memes. Issuers can then pair such tokens with another popular token, like as Tether or BNB, and offer the pair on a decentralised market as initial liquidity. Instead of third parties or centralised bodies, the procedure is completely automated and depends on smart contracts.
According to reports, rugpulls stole almost $2.8 billion from investors in 2021. During the year, it represented for 37 percent of all scam revenue, compared to just 1% in 2020.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.