Data reveals a noteworthy surge of 145% in April for the base chain.
Scammers have set their sights on Coinbase’s Base chain, as it has become a prime target for theft. In fact, two of the top 10 largest thefts in the industry occurred on this network, making up more than 20% of the total theft for the month.
While the overall number of crypto hacks decreased in April compared to previous months, certain networks are experiencing a surge in scam activity as scammers find new ways to trick victims on different platforms. Scam Sniffer’s data reveals that scam activity on Coinbase’s Base network, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain, increased by a staggering 145% in April.
According to the blockchain intelligence firm, scammer activity on the Base network has surged by almost 1,900% since January, resulting in approximately $170,000 being stolen through phishing scams. ERC-20 tokens, the standard for tokens on the Ethereum network, accounted for nearly 90% of the stolen assets in April alone. Scam Sniffer attributes significant losses to common phishing techniques such as Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit2.
Despite the decrease in crypto attacks in April, which marks the first significant decline in 2024, there were still notable incidents. The largest hack involved Hedgey Finance, a token infrastructure platform, losing around $47 million worth of crypto. The second-largest hack targeted the Fix Float exchange, resulting in the theft of $3 million worth of crypto due to a vulnerability in a third-party service provider. Hackers also managed to enrich themselves with $2.67 million from the Grand Base attack, making it the third-largest theft.
Overall, hacks and rug pulls have resulted in the theft of more than $401 million since the beginning of the year, marking a 25.1% decrease compared to the same period last year, when over $536 million worth of hacks occurred, as reported by Immunefi.
In related news, CertiK reports that the damage caused by hacks and scams has reached its lowest level since 2021.
