Magnate Finance’s $6.4M scam linked to Solfire and Kokomo rug pulls

• Magnate Finance rug pull is connected to Solfire and Kokomo Finance scams, blockchain sleuths say.
• The deployer address of the Base-based protocol was the same in the $4.8 million and $5.5 million scams respectively.

On-chain sleuths have linked the deployer address of Magnate Finance, the DeFi protocol on Base that just rug pulled with $6.5 million worth of user assets.  

According to BeosinAlert, a Web3 real-time risk alert platform, the deployer address of Magnate Finance is connected to two previous rug pulls – a $4.8 Solfire scam executed in January 23, 2022 and the $5.5 million rug pull of Kokomo Finance that occurred on March 27, 2023.

The three rug pulls netted the scammers a total of $16.7 million, BeosinAlert X’d (tweeted) on Friday.

Magnate Finance on #BASE has rug pulled for $6.4M.

The deployer is also linked to the past rug pulls:
🚨Solfire's $4.8M rug on Jan 23, 2022
🚨Kokomo Finance's $5.5M rug on Mar 27, 2023

That makes a total profit of $16.7M for the scammers. https://t.co/jl7rhRnt7C pic.twitter.com/SfL3dk4wW0

— Beosin Alert (@BeosinAlert) August 25, 2023

Magnate Finance rug pull

Magnate Finance was a lending and borrowing protocol on Base, a layer-2 platform developed by Coinbase. Concerns about a potential exit scam by the protocol’s team was noted by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, who alerted the crypto community to Magnate Finance’s suspicious activities.

That included the abrupt deletion of the group’s Telegram and X accounts. Their website also went offline before they pulled the plug on the $6.4 million in total value locked (TVL).

The latest rug-pull adds to a string of attacks to hit the DeFi ecosystem. Blockchain security reports have noted that the first six months of the year accounted for nearly $656 million worth of assets lost to hacks, phishing scams, and rug pulls.

Beosin recently narrowed that down to 108 attacks involving roughly $471 million, while phishing scams and 110 rug pulls saw a total of $108 million and $76 million lost in H1, 2023. In some cases, the money has been recovered – for instance Euler Finance’s $197 million.

108 major attacks monitered in the first half of 2023, ~$471M total loss
🚨Top Attacks
–@eulerfinance $197M (recovered)
–@AtomicWallet $67M
–#mev attack $25M
–@BitrueOfficial $24M
–#FPG $20M
–#gdac $13M
–@CenterYearn $11.5M
–@AlgoFoundation $11.2M

Stay vigilant! #cryptocurrency pic.twitter.com/BibmgplKA3

— Beosin 🛡 Blockchain Security (@Beosin_com) July 9, 2023