Update: As of March 29th at 09:50 am UTC, it has been clarified that the token involved in this incident is a counterfeit version of Ethena Labs’ ENA token.
A fraudulent token, bearing the same name as Ethena Labs’ ENA token, has been exploited on the Binance launch pool for farming, resulting in the loss of 480 BNB tokens, equivalent to $290,000.
The exact vulnerability that led to the exploit is currently unknown. On-chain security firm PeckShield reported the incident on March 29th at 8:31 am UTC in an X post, mistakenly identifying the fake token as the genuine ENA token.
Ethena Labs had recently announced the launch of their ENA token on the Binance Launchpool on March 29th. However, shortly after the token’s listing, the exploit involving the unrelated counterfeit token took place, causing widespread confusion.
Ethena Labs had previously introduced its USDe synthetic dollar on the public mainnet on February 19th. On March 8th, the platform became the highest-earning decentralized application (DApp) in the crypto industry by offering investors an impressive annual percentage yield (APY) of 67%.
In terms of the total amount stolen, this exploit falls on the smaller side compared to other crypto hacks. The incident occurred just a day after the Prisma Finance hack, which resulted in losses exceeding $11 million on March 28th.
Crypto hacks have long been a persistent issue in the industry, eroding investor trust. According to blockchain security firm Immunefi, a total of $200 million worth of crypto has been lost to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 alone, spanning across 32 separate incidents up until February 29th.
This loss of over $200 million represents a 15.4% increase compared to the combined losses incurred in January and February 2023, which amounted to $173 million.
In 2023, a staggering $1.8 billion was lost to crypto hacks and scams, with 17% of that sum attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group, according to a report by Immunefi released on December 28th.
Additionally, the “2024 Crypto Crime Report” by Chainalysis reveals that 2022 was the peak year for crypto hackers, with funds stolen totaling over $3.7 billion. However, this figure decreased by 54.3% to $1.7 billion in 2023. Despite the decrease in value, the number of hacking incidents actually increased from 219 in 2022 to 231 in 2023.
Chainalysis attributes the substantial annual drop in funds stolen to a decline in decentralized finance (DeFi) hacking activities.
In related news, a new crypto fund worth $75 million has received backing from prominent investors such as Marc Andreessen, Galaxy Digital, and Accolade, as reported.