- DeFi platform SwirlLend has conducted a rug pull on Base and Linea
- The platform made away with over $450,000 from both platforms
- Scam tokens on Base are estimated to be about 500 tokens
DeFi platform SwirlLend has pulled off an exit scam on its users on the recently launched Ethereum layer 2 platforms Base and Linea, making away with over $450,000 from the two platforms. The platform has closed its website and social media platforms, blocking communication avenues with its users. The rug pull is part of a growing number of malicious actors preying on the popularity of Base with some researchers placing the number of scam tokens on the platform at around 500 tokens.
Users Were Warned 10 Days Ago
SwirlLend siphoned roughly $290,000 from its Base project and an additional $170,000 from Linea before moving the funds to the Ethereum blockchain, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield. The DeFi protocol later washed around $455,000 through Tornado Cash using a new token.
#PeckShieldAlert #Rugpull SwirlLend on #Base has been rugged. The TVL of SwirlLend has dropped from $784.3K to $49.2K. @SwirlLend has already deleted its social platform.
The deployer has already bridged ~$289.5K worth of cryptos from #Base to #Ethereum, including 140.68 $ETH… pic.twitter.com/O0fFjA7zKR
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 16, 2023
The platform’s total amount available on base has dropped from close to $800,000 to below $50,000. Responding to PeckShield’s alert, crypto trade monitoring firm Solidus Labs noted that it had “sent out warnings on August 6th [that] SwirlLend is most likely a scam.”
We sent out warnings on August 6th to be aware that Swirl is most likely a scam, after one of their team members impersonated our CSO Brandon Willis on Telegram.
Follow the alert and news channels of registered security providers to stay in the loop on current incidents!…
— SolidProof.io Official (@SolidProof_io) August 16, 2023
In a recent report, Solidus Labs disclosed that “black hat developers” have launched over 500 scam tokens on Base. The scam tokens are powered by smart contracts with questionable functionalities like preventing buyers from reselling their tokens and offering unclear transaction fees.
Scammers Either Remove Liquidity or Mint New Coins
According to Solidus, scammers on Base have pocketed roughly $2 million so far either by removing liquidity from trading pairs on decentralized exchanges or by minting an “arbitrarily large quantity of new coins.”
The BALD project was among the first scams on Base to conduct off a rug pull where users lost over $5 million. Other projects like decentralized exchange RocketSwap have been exploited, losing over $860,000.
With scammers riding on the popularity of Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 platform, more Base users are likely to become victims.
