According to ZachXBT, a prominent on-chain investigator, a group recently shifted around $1 million in illicit funds to the Base platform, intending to support a new scam. The alleged scammers then converted these assets into wrapped Ether (wETH) and used bridging services like Orbiter and Bungee to transfer them across multiple blockchain networks.
Through this process, the funds ended up in the Blast network, where they purportedly provided funding to an address potentially associated with Leaper Finance, a decentralized over-collateralized lending protocol. This series of transactions, described by ZachXBT as a sudden increase in liquidity designed to lure unsuspecting individuals, points to the group’s involvement in another Base project called ZebraLending, which currently has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $311,000.
The investigator alleges that this group has a history of launching projects that attract significant TVL before vanishing with the funds. ZachXBT further claims that these scammers often fabricate know-your-customer (KYC) documents and collaborate with questionable security auditing firms to create a facade of legitimacy.
Furthermore, it is alleged that the group typically grows their projects’ worth to seven-figure sums before executing a rug pull, absconding with investors’ funds. In the recent Magnate Finance incident, the group purportedly made off with over $6.5 million shortly after ZachXBT and other security experts alerted the public about the project.
Additionally, the Blast network, introduced by Blur founder Tieshun Roquerre, has recently experienced multiple scams, exploits, and rug pulls. The team officially acknowledged an exploit of $4.6 million due to a smart contract bug, confirmed by on-chain security firm CertiK.
According to the Super Sushi team, the exploiter manipulated the game’s smart contract to double token balances and flood its liquidity pool. In a separate event, Munchables, an NFT game on the Blast network, fell victim to a $62 million exploit.
The project acknowledged the breach and announced efforts to trace the exploiter’s actions and prevent the transactions from proceeding.