There is a surge in the number of rug pull involving meme tokens in the cryptocurrency industry. According to PeckShield, a blockchain security company, it has detected about 24 scam meme tokens within the last ten days.
#PeckShieldAlert We have detected a series of #rugpulls involving the creation of ~24 Scam #MEME Tokens within the last 10 days. #SHITMEME, #BENS, #WorldCoin, #MONKEYS, #ERDR, #Magneto, #STARK, #ZAT, #LADYBOY, #USACOIN, #WLD, #POGO, #Miniclip, #PORN, #FROGS, #RNDT, #PSYOP,… pic.twitter.com/KlBX5k9Go6
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 23, 2023
The scam meme coins detected by PeckShield include SHITMEME, BENS, WorldCoin, MONKEYS, ERDR, Magneto, STARK, ZAT, LADYBOY, USACOIN, WLD, POGO, Miniclip, PORN, FROGS, RNDT, PSYOP, POPCAP, FOG, TEMU, TINDER, TAGGED, SEI, and BEREAL.
PeckShield noted that SEI, created barely three hours before the alert, already had its liquidity removed. It observed the scammers initially funded 5.19 ETH from OKX and pumped the token’s price to trick and suck in followers. However, they swiftly drained the pool shortly thereafter, leaving investors stranded.
Rugpull in crypto is when a projector developer or team intentionally hypes the project to deceive and attract unsuspecting investors, only to suddenly shut down or disappear and deliberately run away with investors’ funds. It is a dark side of the cryptocurrency industry that thrives on the decentralized nature of the industry.
Unfortunately, the pseudo-anonymous nature of the industry makes it hard to identify and clamp down on the actual perpetrators of rug pulls. However, users’ best effort is to find ways of identifying projects with such potential and avoid them before they happen.
One of the respondents to PeckShield’s alert berated the crypto industry because of the rampant scams. The Twitter user, Pascal Morsely, questioned if the world is ready for crypto. According to Morsely, there are too many scams and no preventive measures in the crypto industry. He noted that the frequency of rug pulls is one of the reasons users would always prefer centralized exchanges (CEX) over decentralized exchanges (DEX).
PeckShield cautioned users over the rising number of scam meme coins, advising them not to fall prey to any of them.