The data shows that Ethereum layer 2 Base experienced a significant increase in cryptocurrency funds stolen from phishing scams in March compared to previous months. According to Scam Sniffer, approximately $3.35 million was stolen from phishing scammers on Base in March alone. This marks a 334% increase from February’s tally of $773,900 and a massive 1,880% spike compared to January when Base only lost $169,000 from phishing scams. Binance’s BNB Smart Chain also observed a similar surge in phishing scams in March.
Across all chains, approximately $71.5 million was lost to phishing scammers from 77,529 victims, surpassing the tallies of $58.3 million in January and $46.8 million in February. Scam Sniffer highlighted that phishing links from fake X accounts remain a primary tactic, with over 1,500 incidents detected in March.
The increase in Base phishing scams coincides with a recent memecoin craze on the Coinbase-backed chain, which has contributed to Base’s total value locked surpassing $3.2 billion, a 370% increase in 2024 according to L2Beat.
Despite the rise in phishing scams, crypto hack thefts actually decreased by 48% to $187.2 million in March, taking into account the $98.8 million that was recovered over the month. Most of the recoveries came from the $97 million Munchibles exploit, with cryptocurrency sleuth ZachXBT among those involved in recovering the stolen funds.
In addition to the decrease in hacks, there were notable losses in other areas. Curio’s MakerDAO-based smart contract lost $40 million, and Prisma Finance fell victim to an $11.6 million hack. Prisma Finance is currently in negotiations with the hacker to return the stolen funds.
In response to the increase in crypto hacks, a team of white hats called “SEAL 911” has been formed to fight crypto hacks in real-time.