A group notorious for its previous involvement in blockchain fraud has reportedly initiated a new scheme on Blast.
As per ZachXBT, a proficient on-chain investigator, the group has transferred around $1 million in illicitly obtained funds to Base to kickstart their latest fraudulent endeavor.
The group purportedly initiated the fund transfer from an Ethereum (ETH) address associated with prior scams, eventually routing them to a different address on the Polygon network.
Subsequently, the alleged scammers converted the assets into wrapped Ether (wETH) and navigated them across multiple blockchain networks utilizing bridging services like Orbiter and Bungee.
Their intricate maneuvering led them to the Blast network, where they allegedly supported an address potentially affiliated with Leaper Finance, a decentralized over-collateralized lending protocol.
ZachXBT has labeled these transactions as a sudden surge in liquidity designed to lure unsuspecting individuals.
Simultaneously, the blockchain investigator, renowned for unveiling various crypto scams, indicated that these same individuals likely have ties to another Base project called ZebraLending, currently boasting a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $311,000.
ZachXBT asserts that the group has a history of launching projects that amass significant TVL only to abscond with the funds later on. The investigator suggests that the scammers frequently fabricate know-your-customer (KYC) documents and collaborate with questionable security audit firms to project legitimacy.
Scamming Track Record
The group has targeted multiple platforms, including Avalanche (AVAX), Ethereum, Arbitrum (ARB), and Solana (SOL), demonstrating their adaptability and widespread influence in the blockchain sphere.
According to ZachXBT, the scammers typically inflate the value of their projects to seven figures before executing a rug pull and vanishing with investors’ assets. Past projects such as Solfire Finance on Solana, Lendora Protocol on Scroll, and Magnate Finance on Base have been attributed to this group.
In the case of Magnate Finance, the group allegedly absconded with over \(6.5 million mere hours after ZachXBT and other security experts raised concerns about the project. The Solfire scam resulted in a purported \)3 million loss.
Blast, a layer-2 (L2) network pioneered by Blur founder Tieshun Roquerre, has recently encountered several scams, exploits, and rug pulls. In February, RiskOnBlast, a project on the platform, fell victim to a rug pull, leading to a loss of approximately 500 ETH.
In March, the blockchain game Super Sushi Samurai native to the network faced a token exploit just before its gaming launch. The team confirmed a $4.6 million exploit due to a smart contract vulnerability, verified by on-chain security firm CertiK.
During the same month, Munchables, another Blast-based non-fungible token (NFT) game, suffered a $62 million exploit. Munchables acknowledged the breach and detailed efforts to trace the exploiter’s activities and halt the illicit transactions.