Blockchain security firm Blockaid has issued a stern warning to investors in the cryptocurrency market: 50% of recent presale token launches on Solana are malicious.
Ben Natan, the company's CEO, explained that malicious people use social engineering techniques on various platforms such as Telegram, Twitter and Discord. According to Natan, their goal is to trick users into interacting with malicious smart contracts or websites.
“These groups focus not only on memecoins, but also on existing projects,” Natan said and added:
“In the coming days, we saw some of the most popular projects being targeted by these groups.”
Last month, investors sent nearly $100 million worth of crypto tokens to various presales, primarily on Solana, over one weekend. This trend was triggered by the rapid appreciation of several meme coins, such as Book of Meme (BOME).
The process for conducting a presale is actually simple: A token issuer publishes a smart contract address and tells investors to deposit their cryptocurrencies. What is promised is that once the pre-sale ends, the newly minted tokens will be distributed to users based on the relative size of their deposits.
However, the ease with which one can initiate a token pre-sale, combined with investors' fear of missing out, has resulted in a significant increase in scams.
“The excitement around Memecoins has made it more attractive than ever for users to try and seek out new opportunities,” Natan said. “This excitement may encourage users to engage with malicious actors.”
*This is not investment advice.