The recently launched liquidity protocol, Lena Network, experienced a significant drop in its Candy (CANDY) token value, falling by over 87%. This decline was a result of a rug pull that involved the transfer of 753 Ether, equivalent to $2.9 million, at the time of publication.
According to data from Dexscreener, the Candy token dropped to $0.38 as of 12:48 am UTC, after reaching a daily high of $3.08 at 5:45 am.
The on-chain data revealed that the Lena Network deployer address transferred 753.11 Ether to an address linked to the OKX exchange on March 6 at 2:30 am, as reported by Etherscan. This transfer occurred just a few hours before Lena Network publicly announced the renouncement of ownership of the token contract on March 6.
Lena Network has not yet provided a response to this incident as of now.
Before this decline, Lena Network had raised a total of over 850 Ether ($3.2 million) through its Candy initial farm offering, which concluded on March 3. The Candy token was launched on March 6 but experienced a sharp decline soon after.
Rug pulls and hacks have become a growing concern in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024 year-to-date, a total of $200 million worth of cryptocurrency has been lost to such incidents across 32 separate cases, according to a report by blockchain security firm Immunefi.
This represents a 15.4% increase compared to the $173 million lost in January and February of 2023. In February alone, $67 million worth of crypto was stolen across 12 hack and fraud incidents, a significant decrease from the $133 million stolen in January.
Overall, crypto hacks and scammers caused a loss of $1.8 billion in 2023, with the North Korean Lazarus Group being responsible for 17% of these losses, according to Immunefi’s report.
In related news, the price of Bitcoin reached $72,000 in South Korea, as the “Kimchi premium” phenomenon returned.